Received: from localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.208.251]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 778F09FB2CE for ; Wed, 4 Oct 2006 17:28:48 -0300 (ADT) Received: from postgresql.org ([200.46.204.71]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.208.251]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 50567-06 for ; Wed, 4 Oct 2006 17:28:45 -0300 (ADT) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey- Received: from sss.pgh.pa.us (sss.pgh.pa.us [66.207.139.130]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CC5689FB203 for ; Wed, 4 Oct 2006 17:28:44 -0300 (ADT) Received: from sss2.sss.pgh.pa.us (tgl@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sss.pgh.pa.us (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k94KShG9021180; Wed, 4 Oct 2006 16:28:43 -0400 (EDT) To: Steve Peterson cc: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Subject: Re: UPDATE becomes mired / win32 In-reply-to: <6.2.3.4.0.20061004094635.03c114a8@localhost> References: <6.2.3.4.0.20061004094635.03c114a8@localhost> Comments: In-reply-to Steve Peterson message dated "Wed, 04 Oct 2006 12:54:30 -0500" Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:28:43 -0400 Message-ID: <21179.1159993723@sss.pgh.pa.us> From: Tom Lane X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.093 tagged_above=0 required=5 tests=AWL, SPF_HELO_PASS, SPF_PASS X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 200610/112 X-Sequence-Number: 21241 Steve Peterson writes: > If I run the statement: > (1): UPDATE voter SET gender = 'U'; > on the table in this condition, the query effectively never ends -- > I've allowed it to run for 12-14 hours before giving up. > ... > When (1) is running, the machine is very nearly idle, with no > postmaster taking more than 1 or 2 % of the CPU. Is the disk busy? If neither CPU nor I/O are saturated, then it's a good bet that the UPDATE isn't actually running at all, but is waiting for a lock somewhere. Have you looked into pg_locks to check for a conflicting lock? regards, tom lane