BUG #3302: Crash on gist ltree - PANIC: failed to add item to index page

The following bug has been logged online:

Bug reference: 3302
Logged by: Cstdenis
Email address: cstdenis(at)ctgameinfo(dot)com
PostgreSQL version: 8.2.3
Operating system: FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE-p15
Description: Crash on gist ltree - PANIC: failed to add item to
index page
Details:

I was creating the following gist index of an ltree column

CREATE INDEX idx_picture_comments_id_tree_gist
ON picture_comments
USING gist
(id_tree);

and the server exited on signal 6 (core dumped)

Came back up just fine after in recovery mode.

Here are the details.

/var/log/messages
---------
May 23 07:57:00 ayu postgres[39969]: [6-2] STATEMENT: select count(*) from
picture_comments;
May 23 08:01:40 ayu postgres[39969]: [7-1] PANIC: failed to add item to
index page in "idx_picture_comments_id_tree_gist"
May 23 08:01:40 ayu postgres[39969]: [7-2] STATEMENT: CREATE INDEX
idx_picture_comments_id_tree_gist^M
May 23 08:01:40 ayu postgres[39969]: [7-3] ON picture_comments^M
May 23 08:01:40 ayu postgres[39969]: [7-4] USING gist^M
May 23 08:01:40 ayu postgres[39969]: [7-5] (id_tree);
May 23 08:02:01 ayu kernel: pid 39969 (postgres), uid 70: exited on signal 6
(core dumped)
May 23 08:02:01 ayu postgres[15722]: [1-1] WARNING: terminating connection
because of crash of another server process
May 23 08:02:01 ayu postgres[15722]: [1-2] DETAIL: The postmaster has
commanded this server process to roll back the current transaction and exit,
because another server
May 23 08:02:01 ayu postgres[15722]: [1-3] process exited abnormally and
possibly corrupted shared memory.
May 23 08:02:01 ayu postgres[15722]: [1-4] HINT: In a moment you should be
able to reconnect to the database and repeat your command.

Backtrace
---------
ayu# gdb /usr/local/bin/postgres postgres.core

<snip copyright and loading symbols>

(gdb) bt
#0 0x2861a3df in kill () from /lib/libc.so.6
#1 0x2861a37e in raise () from /lib/libc.so.6
#2 0x2861909e in abort () from /lib/libc.so.6
#3 0x082efe2a in errfinish ()
#4 0x082f0367 in elog_finish ()
#5 0x080850f7 in gistfillbuffer ()
#6 0x0808459e in gistmakedeal ()
#7 0x080849e0 in gistmakedeal ()
#8 0x080e2750 in IndexBuildHeapScan ()
#9 0x08084f08 in gistbuild ()
#10 0x082f4205 in OidFunctionCall3 ()
#11 0x080e228e in index_create ()
#12 0x081450a7 in DefineIndex ()
#13 0x0823332e in ProcessUtility ()
#14 0x08231d7e in PortalSetResultFormat ()
#15 0x08231f73 in PortalSetResultFormat ()
#16 0x0823247a in PortalRun ()
#17 0x0822d9e6 in pg_parse_query ()
#18 0x0822fbf8 in PostgresMain ()
#19 0x081f1cda in ClosePostmasterPorts ()
#20 0x081f3d35 in PostmasterMain ()
#21 0x081a3866 in main ()