Kevin Keith <kkeith(at)borderware(dot)com> writes:
> I was trying to run a bulk data load using the COPY command on PGSQL 8.1.0.
> After loading about 3,500,000 records it ran out of memory - I am
> assuming because it ran out of space to store such a large transaction.
COPY per se shouldn't eat memory.
Perhaps you have some AFTER INSERT triggers on this table (note foreign
key constraints would create such)? The pending-trigger queue could
have overflowed memory. Offhand I can't think of another reason.
regards, tom lane