Thread: Receiving "No such file or directory" error from the database

John Puster (jpuster@acymtech.com) reports a bug with a severity of 2
The lower the number the more severe it is.

Short Description
Receiving "No such file or directory" error from the database

Long Description
While setting up the sourceforge package (which requires an installation of PostgreSQL 7.1), a script created a
temporarytable called user_metric_tmp1_1.  This table is impossible to browse, alter, or drop.  All said actions on
thistable result in the following error message:  "ERROR:  cannot open user_metric_tmp1_1: No such file or directory" 

I have done an strace on this query given from the command line, and it does not appear to be actually trying to access
thisfile anywhere, even if it were to exist somewhere. 

There does not seem to be anything unusual about the table. Unfortuneatly, I am unsure what query created or last
modifiedthis table. 

The machine is an Intel Pentium III running Redhat Linux 6.2 (kernel 2.2.14), PostgreSQL 7.1 beta 4, egcs ver. 2.91.66

Sample Code
sourceforge=> \d user_metric_tmp1_1
                  Table "user_metric_tmp1_1"
       Attribute       |       Type       |      Modifier
-----------------------+------------------+--------------------
 user_id               | integer          | not null default 0
 times_ranked          | double precision | default 0
 avg_raters_importance | double precision | not null default 0
 avg_rating            | double precision | not null default 0
 metric                | double precision | not null default 0
sourceforge=> select * from user_metric_tmp1_1 ;
ERROR:  cannot open user_metric_tmp1_1: No such file or directory


No file was uploaded with this report

John Puster (jpuster@acymtech.com) writes:
> While setting up the sourceforge package (which requires an
> installation of PostgreSQL 7.1), a script created a temporary table
> called user_metric_tmp1_1.  This table is impossible to browse, alter,
> or drop.  All said actions on this table result in the following error
> message: "ERROR: cannot open user_metric_tmp1_1: No such file or
> directory"

It sounds like the underlying physical file is not there, but it's hard
to think of a reason for that.  Where exactly might I get this script?

> I have done an strace on this query given from the command line, and
> it does not appear to be actually trying to access this file anywhere,
> even if it were to exist somewhere.

If you were looking for a reference to the table name, rather than its
relfilenode number, you'd not see it.

> There does not seem to be anything unusual about the
> table. Unfortuneatly, I am unsure what query created or last modified
> this table.

Do you have any reason to think that it was touched since the sourceforge
script used it?

            regards, tom lane