Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.183]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 87B3A64FDA1 for ; Tue, 2 Dec 2008 06:34:19 -0400 (AST) Received: from mail.postgresql.org ([200.46.204.86]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.183]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 30017-07 for ; Tue, 2 Dec 2008 06:34:17 -0400 (AST) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from sss.pgh.pa.us (sss.pgh.pa.us [66.207.139.130]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DBE9864FD2D for ; Tue, 2 Dec 2008 06:34:16 -0400 (AST) Received: from sss2.sss.pgh.pa.us (tgl@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sss.pgh.pa.us (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id mB2AYEZ9013979; Tue, 2 Dec 2008 05:34:14 -0500 (EST) To: Craig James cc: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Subject: Re: Sort causes system to freeze In-reply-to: <4934CC58.1050309@emolecules.com> References: <8763maouy9.fsf@oxford.xeocode.com> <4934CC58.1050309@emolecules.com> Comments: In-reply-to Craig James message dated "Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:49:12 -0800" Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:34:13 -0500 Message-ID: <13978.1228214053@sss.pgh.pa.us> From: Tom Lane X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0 tagged_above=0 required=5 tests=none X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 200812/7 X-Sequence-Number: 32043 Craig James writes: > Maybe this is an obviously dumb thing to do, but it looked reasonable > to me. The problem is, the seemingly simple sort below causes a > fairly powerful computer to completely freeze for 5-10 minutes. trace_sort output might be informative. regards, tom lane