> What this looks like is that there's a mangled expression string in > the catalog entry for either a check constraint or an expression index. > The backend is dying while trying to decompile the expression for > pg_dump. you were write, I appears that my problem is with one of four functional date_trunc indexs that I created for a timespace column. Here is a greatly simplified query that still succeeds: mydb=# select indexrelid from pg_index where indrelid = '16737'; indexrelid ------------ 604243 604251 604252 604253 604254 (5 rows) However, when I add the following function it breaks: mydb=# select pg_get_indexdef(indexrelid) from pg_index where indrelid = '16737'; server closed the connection unexpectedly This probably means the server terminated abnormally before or while processing the request. The connection to the server was lost. Attempting reset: Failed. > What I suggest doing is turning on log_statement = all and running > pg_dump, so that you can see the query it's dying on. That would give > you enough info to look into the catalog entry for the constraint or > index at hand. Worst-case, you can probably fix things by dropping and > recreating the constraint or index ...log_min_messages = info but before you do that, I'd urge > you to try to get as much info as you can about the nature of the > catalog corruption. If there's a bug here, as opposed to random > cosmic-ray damage, we can't fix it without more info. The logs aren't really providing anymore information since I was already using "all". However, I turned log_min_messages from "warning to "info". %mydb LOG: statement: select pg_get_indexdef(indexrelid) from pg_index where indrelid = '16737'; % LOG: server process (PID 16099) was terminated by signal 11 % LOG: terminating any other active server processes % LOG: all server processes terminated; reinitializing % LOG: database system was interrupted at 2006-10-26 18:09:09 PDT % LOG: checkpoint record is at 0/8E9161A8 % LOG: redo record is at 0/8E9161A8; undo record is at 0/0; shutdown TRUE % LOG: next transaction ID: 174591; next OID: 621178 % LOG: next MultiXactId: 53; next MultiXactOffset: 115 % LOG: database system was not properly shut down; automatic recovery in progress %mydb FATAL: the database system is starting up % LOG: record with zero length at 0/8E9161EC % LOG: redo is not required % LOG: database system is ready % LOG: transaction ID wrap limit is 1073790580, limited by database "postgres" Thanks for the help Tom. Regards, Richard Broersma Jr.