Re: BUG #5007: could not reattach to shared memory

On Tuesday, August 25, 2009, Craig Ringer <craig(at)postnewspapers(dot)com(dot)au> wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-08-25 at 05:44 +0000, Regina wrote:
>> The following bug has been logged online:
>>
>> Bug reference:      5007
>> Logged by:          Regina
>> Email address:      lr(at)pcorp(dot)us
>> PostgreSQL version: 8.3.6
>> Operating system:   Windows 2008 Server Standard
>> Description:        could not reattach to shared memory
>> Details:
>>
>> One of our clients is getting the following error in their PostgreSQL 8.3.6
>> logs in their http://ASP.NET application.  This only happens if their application
>> runs a long query (which they dump out to disk and disk size (ESRI
>> shapefiles) is generally above 70 mb or more) when this fails.
>>
>> The error is below:
>> FATAL:  could not reattach to shared memory (key=232, addr=01DF0000): 487
>> %t WARNING:  worker took too long to start; cancelled
>
> Search the -general mailing list archives for "reattach to shared
> memory". The issue has been around for a while but until recently nobody
> could reproduce it well enough to isolate it and test possible fixed.
> You'll see some recent discussion and a proposed patch.
>
> Try upgrading to the latest version in the 8.3 series. If you still see
> the problem please follow up here, or try the patch for the issuye
> proposed on the pgsql-general list.

The probable fix is not in a released version - it will be in the next
one. Please try to upgrade to the latest and then replace postgres.exe
with the one from http://blog.hagander.net ad let us know if it works
in your situation.

>
>> In these cases their .NET app returns this error
>> Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown
>
> That's probably a bug in their application caused by failure to properly
> handle a connection problem.

Yes, or possibly npgsql having the bug, though I haven't heard of it
there. The stacktrace should probably tell you where - if not, a
memory dump with the debugger.

/Magnus

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: http://www.hagander.net/
Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/