This problem seems to be related to the .psql_history file. If I
delete the file, the problem does not occur and psql starts up fine.
However, when I run psql again (after the previous session had
generated a .psql_history file), the problem occurs. strace shows
something like
read(4, "", 131072) = 0
.
.
(hundreds)
.
.
brk(0) = 0x39f8d000
brk(0x39fae000) = 0x39fae000
read(4, "", 131072) = 0
.
.
(hundreds)
.
.
So it seems to be something related to reading the .psql_history file.
-- Mike