Re: Stuck in "DELETE waiting"

Alexander Staubo <alex(at)purefiction(dot)net> writes:
> My application's connections against PostgreSQL 8.1.4 seem to get
> stuck in deletion operations.
> ...
> # select * from pg_locks where pid in (18198, 18204, 18208, 18214,
> 18216);

You really need to show all of pg_locks, not a subset. In this example
it appears that 18204 and 18198 are waiting for transactions that are
not part of this subset, so it's hard to say what's happening.

It could be that you are getting bit by this recently identified bug:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2006-11/msg01004.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-committers/2006-11/msg00121.php
but the symptoms known so far for that involve unexpected
"deadlock detected" errors, not silent hangups.

regards, tom lane