Re: cannot find attribute 1 of relation (of some user table) in 7.1.3

Tom Lane writes:
> Dirk Lutzebaeck <lutzeb(at)aeccom(dot)com> writes:
> > Hi, I have the follow problem when vacuum'ing on 7.1.3:
> > ERROR: cannot find attribute 1 of relation docmatchsel
> > Then I tried to reindex the table in standalone mode which gives:
> > backend> reindex table docmatchsel force
> > ERROR: catalog is missing 4 attributes for relid 117042636
>
> Bizarre. Were there four columns altogether?

Yes.

> > docmatchsel was created as a temporary table in the application.
>
> Since it's only a temporary table, my counsel is:
>
> 1. delete from pg_class where relname = 'docmatchsel';
>
> 2. pg_dump, initdb, reload.
>
> You might be okay after just step 1, but given that we don't know what
> caused this, an initdb seems like a good idea.

Ok, I will do this tonight.

> It would be interesting to go groveling through pg_attribute and see if
> we can find any traces of the missing attribute rows, but unless you're
> prepared to sift through the bits yourself (or give access to some
> developer to do it), that's not going to happen.

I would like to go with your fixes above this time. If it happens
again we should take a closer look indeed.

Thanks,

Dirk