"Stuart Grimshaw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> On 12/23/06, Stuart Grimshaw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> berble=# select * from headlines ;
>> ERROR:  could not access status of transaction 1668180339
>> DETAIL:  could not open file "pg_clog/0636": No such file or directory
>> 
>> Using Postgres 8.1.5 from Debian unstable, I got the above error, and
>> I have no idea what it means?

It looks like a corrupt-data problem, specifically something has stomped
on the xmin field of a tuple header.  (Because xmin is the first
readily-checkable field examined when visiting a tuple, "could not
access status of transaction" is the most likely result from wholesale
overwriting of a portion of a table.)  My calculator says 1668180339 is
equal to ASCII "cnis" (or "sinc" depending on your machine's endianness)
which makes it seem somewhat likely that some text has gotten dumped
into a Postgres data file.  We've seen that happen before from disk or
operating system misfeasance :-(.  See the PG archives concerning
procedures for localizing and removing trashed rows --- as a first guess
about where it's discussed, try searching for threads mentioning
pg_filedump ...

                        regards, tom lane

---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to
       choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not
       match

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