Re: Temporary sorting space - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: Temporary sorting space
Date
Msg-id 8392.983938378@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Temporary sorting space  (Richard Boyes <r.boyes@auckland.ac.nz>)
List pgsql-general
Richard Boyes <r.boyes@auckland.ac.nz> writes:
> Inside the $PGDATA/base/thedatabase I came across a rather
> large file called pg_sorttemp28193.0 (~ 587 MB). Our datbase
> is not anywhere near this large, so I can only guess this was
> a query gone awry that needed a large amount of sorting space.
> Around the time this file was created the database server
> also crashed, I'm wondering if this was a cause of it
> (the server crashed due to a memory problem). Could that be possible ?

Possibly, but this is not a lot of evidence.  Can you provide any
log file entries, core dump backtraces, etc?

> Also, would I now be safe in removing this file ?

If there's not currently a backend with PID 28193, then that's a
dead file.  Zap away.

            regards, tom lane

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