Micah Anderson <micah@colltech.com> writes:
> In my /var/postgres/base/database directory I've got a bunch of REALLY big
> files that are from several months ago:
> -rw------- 1 postgres postgres 191684608 Oct 30 23:35 pg_sorttemp10964.0
> -rw------- 1 postgres postgres 192126976 Oct 30 23:44 pg_sorttemp11353.0
> -rw------- 1 postgres postgres 192126976 Oct 30 23:44 pg_sorttemp11369.0
Looks like something crashed partway through a large sort :-(
If the backend that created the temp file is no longer running, it's
certainly safe to delete the file. The number just after "temp"
is the PID of the creating backend.
It's odd that you seem to have several identically-sized sorttemp
files from different processes at the same time. What were you
doing on Oct 30? Don't suppose you have a postmaster log extending
back that far?
regards, tom lane