Thread: PG_dump fatal error (second post)
Hello-
I'm reposting this problem because I didn't receive any responses to the
first post that led to a resolution- Perhaps this is a bug, but I'll give it
another chance here before promoting it to the bugs list.
Since sending the information below, I've set up a nearly identical system
on another box and loaded the same database there to ensure that my problem
isn't simply due to hardware or bit of corruption in my installed software.
I still get exactly the same message on the second box, so I'm practically
certain that this is a predictably repeatable problem with pg_dump.
Here's the original post:
I'm getting the following error message:
pg_dump: [tar archiver] could not write to tar member (wrote 39, attempted
166)
Here are the particulars:
-I'm running this command: "pg_dump -Ft prod | prod.dump.tar" (The database
is named prod)
-The dump gets about 1/4 of the way through, and then gives me the error
message and dies.
-I'm running PostgreSQL version 7.3.2.
-There is plenty of disk space available.
-The same command on the same database and server with same specs worked
last week when I was on V7.2.1.
-Since upgrading, more data has been added, but the structure of the
database is unchanged.
-Using the -v switch shows me that it always quits on the same table, but
otherwise adds no new information.
-The part of the error message in parentheses changes on each run. For
instance, on the last run, I got "(wrote 64, attempted 174)" The rest of
the message remains consistent.
-The table it quits on is fairly large- about 2.6GB. It is both "wide"
because it contains a text field that is usually a few sentences of text,
and "long", containing 9,137,808 records. This is also the only table in our
database that is split into multiple files.
-A text dump using this command works fine: "pg_dump prod > prod.dump.text"
I found a reference to this message in the admin list archives on 3/28/2003,
but it was in the context of a database containing large blobs (mine has no
blobs), and the suggestion was to upgrade to 7.3. I couldn't find a
resolution in that thread, so I'm not sure if it ever got worked out.
Any thoughts??
Thanks!
-Nick
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Nick Fankhauser
nickf@doxpop.com Phone 1.765.965.7363 Fax 1.765.962.9788
doxpop - Court records at your fingertips - http://www.doxpop.com/
Hi Dani- The file is nowhere near 2GB, and a regular text dump running at the same time always completes successfuly, with a resulting file size about 4 times what the tar-format file was when it died. Also note that this worked on the same server using the same database using v7.2 of postgreSQL. Thanks for the idea. (That was my first thought as well.) -Nick > how big does your tar file get when you get the error? > I would guess that its 2GB at this time, which would indicate > that you just > hit a File System Limit. > To prevent this, I guess you should use the "split" command to > split your file in pieces of less than 2 GB size. > > Regards, > Dani >
Nick Fankhauser wrote: >... > >pg_dump: [tar archiver] could not write to tar member (wrote 39, attempted >166) > > ... Hi Nick, how big does your tar file get when you get the error? I would guess that its 2GB at this time, which would indicate that you just hit a File System Limit. To prevent this, I guess you should use the "split" command to split your file in pieces of less than 2 GB size. Regards, Dani
Nick Fankhauser a écrit : >Hello- > >I'm reposting this problem because I didn't receive any responses to the >first post that led to a resolution- Perhaps this is a bug, but I'll give it >another chance here before promoting it to the bugs list. > >Since sending the information below, I've set up a nearly identical system >on another box and loaded the same database there to ensure that my problem >isn't simply due to hardware or bit of corruption in my installed software. >I still get exactly the same message on the second box, so I'm practically >certain that this is a predictably repeatable problem with pg_dump. > >Here's the original post: > >I'm getting the following error message: > >pg_dump: [tar archiver] could not write to tar member (wrote 39, attempted >166) > >Here are the particulars: > >-I'm running this command: "pg_dump -Ft prod | prod.dump.tar" (The database >is named prod) > > prod.dump.tar is the result of pg_dump, not a command, as for your text sample below. "pg_dump -Ft prod > prod.dump.tar" would be better. >-The dump gets about 1/4 of the way through, and then gives me the error >message and dies. > >-I'm running PostgreSQL version 7.3.2. > >-There is plenty of disk space available. > >-The same command on the same database and server with same specs worked >last week when I was on V7.2.1. > >-Since upgrading, more data has been added, but the structure of the >database is unchanged. > >-Using the -v switch shows me that it always quits on the same table, but >otherwise adds no new information. > >-The part of the error message in parentheses changes on each run. For >instance, on the last run, I got "(wrote 64, attempted 174)" The rest of >the message remains consistent. > >-The table it quits on is fairly large- about 2.6GB. It is both "wide" >because it contains a text field that is usually a few sentences of text, >and "long", containing 9,137,808 records. This is also the only table in our >database that is split into multiple files. > >-A text dump using this command works fine: "pg_dump prod > prod.dump.text" > >I found a reference to this message in the admin list archives on 3/28/2003, >but it was in the context of a database containing large blobs (mine has no >blobs), and the suggestion was to upgrade to 7.3. I couldn't find a >resolution in that thread, so I'm not sure if it ever got worked out. > >Any thoughts?? > >Thanks! > -Nick > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- >Nick Fankhauser > > nickf@doxpop.com Phone 1.765.965.7363 Fax 1.765.962.9788 >doxpop - Court records at your fingertips - http://www.doxpop.com/ > > >---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- >TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives? > > http://archives.postgresql.org > > > > -- Jean-Michel Chabanne 77450 MONTRY (FRANCE) 48" 54' N - 2" 49' E Powered by Linux
> prod.dump.tar is the result of pg_dump, not a command, as for > your text sample below. > "pg_dump -Ft prod > prod.dump.tar" would be better. Jean-Michel- I'm sorry- that was a typo in my original post that I should have corrected. The actual command that I'm using is in fact "pg_dump -Ft prod > prod.dump.tar" Here is a snip from the console log on the second machine that I'm using to diagnose with: nickf@morgai:~$ pg_dump -Ft alpha > dump.tar pg_dump: [tar archiver] could not write to tar member (wrote 110, attempted 398) nickf@morgai:~$ nickf@morgai:~$ nickf@morgai:~$ ls -al dump.tar -rw-r--r-- 1 nickf nickf 1388367872 Jul 21 14:49 dump.tar nickf@morgai:~$ Note also that the file size is well under 2GB. Thanks for looking it over. -Nick