Core dumps, i.e. how to track down a problem

oberpwd@anubis.network.com (Wade D. Oberpriller) writes:

Whenever I try to execute one of these functions, the postgres server
process crashes. Does this process leave a core dump or some kind of
trace to be able to learn more about what is happening? All it does
now is report that the server process aborted with a status 11.

There should be a core file in the database subdirectory
($PGDATA/base/yourdbname/core). If you don't find one there, the
odds are that you started the postmaster with "ulimit -c 0" which
prevents coredumps. (Unfortunately, on some platforms this is the
default environment for anything started from a boot script.) Restart
the postmaster with "ulimit -c unlimited" and try again.

Once you have the core file, use gdb to get a backtrace:

gdb /path/to/postgres/executable /path/to/corefile
bt
quit

Is there any extra flags to turn on, or compile with that could help?

The corefile will be more informative if you compiled with -g, but
a backtrace may be useful even without.

regards, tom lane