I had an Out of Memory error while running this query in psql over a 170 million rows table: select data, usuario, sum(pontos), sum(wus) from usuarios group by data, usuario FC2 PG 7.4.6 1GB mem Linux s1 2.6.9-1.11_FC2 #1 Sun Jan 2 15:49:30 EST 2005 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux logfile: LOG: checkpoints are occurring too frequently (2 seconds apart) HINT: Consider increasing the configuration parameter "checkpoint_segments". ... LOG: recycled transaction log file "000001D70000009A" LOG: removing transaction log file "000001D700000097" ... ERROR: canceling query due to user request LOG: could not send data to client: Broken pipe LOG: unexpected EOF on client connection postgresql.conf (everything else default): shared_buffers = 3000 sort_mem = 131072 vacuum_mem = 131072 max_fsm_pages = 300000 fsync = false wal_buffers = 256 checkpoint_segments = 32 extra_float_digits = 2 lc_messages = 'C' lc_monetary = 'pt_BR.UTF-8' lc_numeric = 'pt_BR.UTF-8' lc_time = 'pt_BR.UTF-8' var/log/messages: Feb 7 15:29:32 s1 su(pam_unix)[24675]: session closed for user root Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: oom-killer: gfp_mask=0x1d2 Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: Mem-info: Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: DMA per-cpu: Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: cpu 0 hot: low 2, high 6, batch 1 Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: cpu 0 cold: low 0, high 2, batch 1 Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: Normal per-cpu: Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: cpu 0 hot: low 32, high 96, batch 16 Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: cpu 0 cold: low 0, high 32, batch 16 Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: HighMem per-cpu: Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: cpu 0 hot: low 12, high 36, batch 6 Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: cpu 0 cold: low 0, high 12, batch 6 Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: Feb 7 16:30:22 s1 kernel: Free pages: 1280kB (120kB HighMem) Feb 7 16:30:23 s1 kernel: Active:132041 inactive:116634 dirty:0 writeback:0 unstable:0 free:320 slab:2226 mapped:246816 pagetables:1456 Feb 7 16:30:23 s1 kernel: DMA free:16kB min:16kB low:32kB high:48kB active:6616kB inactive:6068kB present:16384kB Feb 7 16:30:23 s1 kernel: protections[]: 0 0 0 Feb 7 16:30:23 s1 kernel: Normal free:1144kB min:936kB low:1872kB high:2808kB active:445348kB inactive:426140kB present:901120kB Feb 7 16:30:23 s1 kernel: protections[]: 0 0 0 Feb 7 16:30:24 s1 kernel: HighMem free:120kB min:128kB low:256kB high:384kB active:76200kB inactive:34328kB present:114624kB Feb 7 16:30:24 s1 kernel: protections[]: 0 0 0 Feb 7 16:30:24 s1 kernel: DMA: 0*4kB 0*8kB 1*16kB 0*32kB 0*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 16kB Feb 7 16:30:24 s1 kernel: Normal: 32*4kB 9*8kB 3*16kB 2*32kB 1*64kB 0*128kB 1*256kB 1*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 1144kB Feb 7 16:30:24 s1 kernel: HighMem: 0*4kB 1*8kB 1*16kB 1*32kB 1*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 120kB Feb 7 16:30:25 s1 kernel: Swap cache: add 422343, delete 421792, find 12780/16340, race 0+0 Feb 7 16:30:25 s1 kernel: Free swap: 0kB Feb 7 16:30:25 s1 kernel: 258032 pages of RAM Feb 7 16:30:25 s1 kernel: 28656 pages of HIGHMEM Feb 7 16:30:25 s1 kernel: 3138 reserved pages Feb 7 16:30:26 s1 kernel: 14914 pages shared Feb 7 16:30:26 s1 kernel: 551 pages swap cached Feb 7 16:30:26 s1 kernel: Out of Memory: Killed process 30679 (psql). Any advice on how to avoid it? Regards, Clodoaldo Pinto ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings