X-Original-To: pgsql-general-postgresql.org@localhost.postgresql.org Received: from localhost (av.hub.org [200.46.204.144]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 221049DD63C for ; Mon, 5 Dec 2005 15:35:54 -0400 (AST) Received: from postgresql.org ([200.46.204.71]) by localhost (av.hub.org [200.46.204.144]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 19756-06-2 for ; Mon, 5 Dec 2005 15:35:48 -0400 (AST) 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 15A8F9DD55A for ; Mon, 5 Dec 2005 15:35:45 -0400 (AST) Received: from sss2.sss.pgh.pa.us (tgl@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sss.pgh.pa.us (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id jB5JZjDF001745; Mon, 5 Dec 2005 14:35:45 -0500 (EST) To: Eric E cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org Subject: Re: Preventing or controlling runaway queries In-reply-to: <43948EC3.4030407@gmail.com> References: <43948EC3.4030407@gmail.com> Comments: In-reply-to Eric E message dated "Mon, 05 Dec 2005 14:02:27 -0500" Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2005 14:35:45 -0500 Message-ID: <1744.1133811345@sss.pgh.pa.us> From: Tom Lane X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at hub.org X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.007 required=5 tests=[AWL=0.007] X-Spam-Score: 0.007 X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 200512/260 X-Sequence-Number: 87823 Eric E writes: > I've recently had a couple worrisome experiences with runaway > queries in postgres 7.4 and 8.0, and I'm wondering what I can do to > control or prevent these. When I ran a query against a large table, I > accidentally omitted mistyped a table name, and a table was > automatically added, resulting in a massive result set that crash my > postmaster instance. If it crashed your backend (as opposed to your client), we'd like to see more details. > Is there some way to limit the amount of > memory a single query process can use? See ulimit. regards, tom lane