Problems with unconstrained join

Something rather weird happens if you ask for an unlimited join that
gives too many rows:

bray=# select count(*) from product;
count
-------
5482
(1 row)

bray=# select count(*) from stock;
count
-------
5482
(1 row)

[ Cartesian product = 30,052,324 rows ]

bray=# select p.id from product as p, stock;
server sent data ("D" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
server sent data ("D" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
server sent data ("D" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
---[lots of those]...
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
server sent data ("D" message) without prior row description ("T" message)
5002D2DH5002D03D H5003D003DD5003D4DH5004D04D H5004D005DD5005D5DH5005D06D H5006D006DD5006D7DH5007D07D H5007D008DD5008D8DH5008D09D H5009D009DD5009D0DH5010D10D H5010D010DD5011D1DH5011D12D H5012D012DD5012D3DH5013D13D H5013D013DD5014D4DH5014D15D H5015D015DD5015D6DH5016D16D H5016D01
...[quite a lot more of that]...
Cancel request sent
Cancel request sent

I used ctrl-C to cancel, but the query did not terminate. The backend
was listed as idle, so I guess that psql had choked. I had to kill it
off.

The PostgreSQL version is 7.2.

Obviously psql or the backend was being asked to cope with too much
data, but is there any way to handle the situation more cleanly?

--
Oliver Elphick Oliver(dot)Elphick(at)lfix(dot)co(dot)uk
Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
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