MySQL Bugs: #50133: sorting big table : 'segmentation fault'

Bug #50133	sorting big table : 'segmentation fault' - 'sort aborted' 'Unexpected eof found
Submitted:	7 Jan 2010 10:58	Modified:	10 Mar 2010 1:09
Reporter:	Olivier Delrieu	Email Updates:
Status:	No Feedback	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: Errors	Severity:	S2 (Serious)
Version:	5.1.41	OS:	Linux
Assigned to:		CPU Architecture:	Any
Tags:	big table, Memory Engine, order by

Description:
Hi All,

Mysql server crashes every time I do the following:

INSERT INTO tblfinal_sorted (var_id, sub_id, data)
SELECT var_id, sub_id, data FROM tblfinal
ORDER BY var_id
;

The table is quite big: 10GB and 1.3 billion rows. Both have FIXED rows length and are in MEMORY engine. I have 70GB RAM available (enough for both tables and the sort buffer).

If I increase sort_buffer_size, to 32GB, mysql server crashes with a 'segmentation fault'

If I lower sort_buffer_size, so that temporary files are used for sorting, the query crashes with: 'sort aborted' (code 1028) and 'Unexpected eof found when reading file' (code 9)
(I have enough space on disk; same error if tmpdir is placed in a tmpfs ramdisk)

I have same issues with ALTER TABLE ... ORDER BY statement with various myisam_sort_buffer_size. 

How to repeat:
Generate large MEMORY engine tables and try sort them.

Please, upload the entire error log, my.cnf file content and the results of:

uname -a
free

Linux commands.

No feedback was provided for this bug for over a month, so it is
being suspended automatically. If you are able to provide the
information that was originally requested, please do so and change
the status of the bug back to "Open".

No feedback was provided for this bug for over a month, so it is
being suspended automatically. If you are able to provide the
information that was originally requested, please do so and change
the status of the bug back to "Open".