[postgis-users] geometry_inter function crashes database / solaris / postgres 7.4

[Gregory S. Williamson]

We've got a select which returns five rows (out of a few hundred thousand) when done without the geometry_inter function. When we call this function we get a fatal crash that brings down postgres.

select an_id, the_geom,
 area(geometry_inter(the_geom, GeometryFromText('POLYGON((-76.7714616961 38.7472033948, -76.7663097341 38.7472033948, -76.7663097341 38.7444988547, -76.7714616961 38.7444988547, -76.7714616961 38.7472033948))', 4326))) from our_shapes where the_geom && GeometryFromText('POLYGON((-76.7714616961 38.7472033948, -76.7663097341 38.7472033948, -76.7663097341 38.7444988547, -76.7714616961 38.7444988547, -76.7714616961 38.7472033948))', 4326);

server closed the connection unexpectedly
        This probably means the server terminated abnormally
        before or while processing the request.
The connection to the server was lost. Attempting reset: Succeeded.


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It usually dies and I have to exit the psql program. Postgres itself comes back up ok:

DETAIL:  The postmaster has commanded this server process to roll back the current transaction and exit, because another server process exited abnormally and possibly corrupted shared memory.
HINT:  In a moment you should be able to reconnect to the database and repeat your command.
WARNING:  terminating connection because of crash of another server process
DETAIL:  The postmaster has commanded this server process to roll back the current transaction and exit, because another server process exited abnormally and possibly corrupted shared memory.
HINT:  In a moment you should be able to reconnect to the database and repeat your command.
...
2004-01-13 16:31:08 LOG:  database system is ready

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A few details
uname -a
SunOS servername 5.9 Generic_112234-05 i86pc i386 i86pc

psql --version
psql (PostgreSQL) 7.4

And:
select postgis_version();
            postgis_version
---------------------------------------
 0.8 USE_GEOS=0 USE_PROJ=1 USE_STATS=1
(1 row)

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This seems similar to another thread about intersection failing in much the same way.