[postgis-users] PostGIS, 64 bit Solaris, Invalide memory alloc message using force_collection

[Erik Persson]

Hi all,

I am wondering if anyone has experience running PostGIS on a 64 bit  
version of Solaris running on the Sparc architecture.  The error  
described below occurred when compiled as 64 bit.  A quick test on a  
32 bit Sparc machine indicates that the problem does not exist there.

I recently installed postgis on a solaris machine and a mapserver  
query to postgis that has been working fine on OS X and linux  
suddenly failed with an 'invalid memory alloc' error.  I have reduced  
the error down to a the force_collection function.  I have down-reved  
to PostgreSQL 8.1.1 and postgis 1.1.0 and experience the same problem.

If I make a simple table with a single point column force collection  
works fine.  If I add a second row I get a huge amount of output  
(with the memory alloc error appearing sporadically), about 45MB of  
data for a 2 points of dim 2 in a single column in a table with two  
rows!  I have done the test with POINTS of dim 2 and 3 with similar  
results.  The requested memory size appears to be the same, but at  
the moment I can't confirm that %100.

If I use the LIMIT directive, I seem to get the error regardless of  
the number of rows, but given the sporadic nature of the problem with  
two rows of data in the table I can't be 100% of the  
reproducibility.  If I select a single row using an id column it  
works fine.

As you can see below, it is a 64 bit architecture compiled as 64  
bit.  All the relevant versions and system information should be  
contained below.

Any suggestions?  Known bugs? Known problems on 64 bit architectures,  
particularly Solaris?  I am happy to instrument code, try  patches,  
or do other debugging.

Thanks,
Erik

Example of failure:
pod=# select force_collection(the_point) from foo;
ERROR:  invalid memory alloc request size 1073741824

Demonstration that data is valid:
pod=# select astext(the_point) from foo;
           astext
--------------------------
POINT(-90 45)
POINT(-149.1323 61.5982)
(2 rows)

Test data used:
pod=# select * from foo;
id |                 the_point                   
|                         the_point3
----+-------------------------------------------- 
+------------------------------------------------------------
   2 | 0000000001C0568000000000004046800000000000 |  
0080000001C05680000000000040468000000000000000000000000000
   1 | 0000000001C062A43BCD35A858404ECC91D14E3BCD |  
0080000001C062A43BCD35A858404ECC91D14E3BCD0000000000000000
(2 rows)


pod=# select version();
                                   version
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
---
PostgreSQL 8.1.1 on sparc-sun-solaris2.9, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC)  
3.4.3
(1 row)

pod=# select postgis_full_version();
                                postgis_full_version
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
----------
POSTGIS="1.1.1" GEOS="2.2.1-CAPI-1.0.1" PROJ="Rel. 4.4.9, 29 Oct  
2004" USE_STATS
(1 row)


bash-2.05$ ldd liblwgeom.so
         libgeos_c.so.1 =>        /usr/local/geos/lib/libgeos_c.so.1
         libproj.so.0 =>  /usr/local/proj4/lib/libproj.so.0
         libgcc_s.so.1 =>         /usr/local/gcc/lib/sparcv9/ 
libgcc_s.so.1
         libgeos.so.2 =>  /usr/local/geos/lib/libgeos.so.2
         libstdc++.so.6 =>        /usr/local/gcc-3.4.3-v9/lib/sparcv9/ 
libstdc++.so.6
         libm.so.1 =>     /usr/lib/64/libm.so.1
         libc.so.1 =>     /usr/lib/64/libc.so.1
         libdl.so.1 =>    /usr/lib/64/libdl.so.1
         /usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-V240/lib/sparcv9/libc_psr.so.1

bash-2.05$ cat /etc/release
                         Solaris 9 9/05 s9s_u8wos_05 SPARC

bash-2.05$ uname -a
SunOS machine 5.9 Generic_118558-11 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-V240

gcc (GCC) 3.4.3