Re: Block Read Error: Success?

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: "Thomas F(dot) O'Connell" <tf(at)o(dot)ptimized(dot)com>
Cc: pgsql-admin(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Block Read Error: Success?
Date: 2008-02-13 21:39:47
Message-ID: 24012.1202938787@sss.pgh.pa.us
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"Thomas F. O'Connell" <tf(at)o(dot)ptimized(dot)com> writes:
> A few days ago, we began seeing this error in our logs:
> ERROR: could not read block [redacted] of relation [redacted]: Success

> I've encountered "could not read block" errors in other databases in
> the past, but have never witnessed the "Success" tag at the end. What
> does that mean?

What this means is a read past EOF --- that is, read() returned fewer
bytes than requested (perhaps none at all) but did not signal an error.
A potential ultimate cause is corrupt indexes that contain pointers
leading past the end of the table. Which sounds a whole lot like the
VACUUM bug fixed in 8.0.14 and other recent releases.

> We're running 8.0.13 on FC3. Is there any reason not to suspect the
> hardware at this point?

I'd question your choice of platform --- FC3 went EOL quite some time
ago.

regards, tom lane

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