Re: Enquiry about long-running queries - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Ron Johnson
Subject Re: Enquiry about long-running queries
Date
Msg-id CANzqJaDiGxC6yR1Bog_G4DQNKuRiE9i1eoLBiP4Lyam7MN6Z7A@mail.gmail.com
Whole thread Raw
In response to Enquiry about long-running queries  (Ashish Mukherjee <ashish.mukherjee@gmail.com>)
List pgsql-general
On Fri, Nov 7, 2025 at 8:49 AM Ashish Mukherjee <ashish.mukherjee@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello,

I have a query like this showing up on my production database - 

s05=> SELECT pid, user, usename, application_name, client_addr, client_hostname, client_port, datname, now() - query_start as "runtime",
state, wait_event_type, wait_event,
substr(query, 0, 100)
 FROM  pg_stat_activity
 WHERE now() - query_start > '5 minutes'::interval and state = 'active'
 ORDER BY runtime DESC;
   pid   | user | usename | application_name |  client_addr  | client_hostname | client_port | datname |        runtime
       | state  | wait_event_type |   wait_event   |                                               substr
-------+--------+-----------------+----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------
  356274 | s05  | s05     | scandir          | 192.168.64.61 |                 |       44098 | s05     | 9 days 18:45:37
.65577 | active | IPC             | ParallelFinish | select scac_code from scac where supported_by_smc = true

The query when run from psql prompt finishes in a jiffy, so query performance/cost is not the problem. Also, when I try to kill the query through pg_terminate_backend or pg_cancel_backend, it does not get killed.

If it runs in a jiffy, do you have time to kill it before it finishes?
 
I am wondering what could be the root cause of this problem and how it could be addressed.  Any pointers would be appreciated.

What problem?  The query existing, or not being able to kill a query that finishes before you have time to kill it?

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Don't boil me, I'm still alive.
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