data.table 1.18.0 causes Postgresql server crash (segmentation fault) with pl/R on Debian servers #7605
Description
Since version 1.18.0, loading data.table in a pl/R function on a PostgreSQL server on Debian (12 and 13 at least) causes a segmentation fault which crashes the PostgreSQL instance (17 and 18 tested).
Steps to reproduce on a fresh Debian (12 or 13) VM:
Install PostgreSQL
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y postgresql-common
sudo /usr/share/postgresql-common/pgdg/apt.postgresql.org.sh
sudo apt install postgresql-17Install R
sudo apt install r-base r-base-devInstall R packages
To be usable by PostgreSQL, packages are installed as sudo.
sudo R
install.packages(c("dplyr", "data.table"))
exitdata.table v 1.18.0 is installed by default, since it's the last available version.
Install pl/R
sudo apt install postgresql-17-plrCreate and test a pl/R function loading data.table
sudo -iu postgres psql
create extension plr;
SELECT * FROM plr_environ();
SELECT load_r_typenames();
SELECT * FROM r_typenames();
SELECT plr_array_accum('{23,35}', 42);
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.r_test(int) RETURNS int AS $code$
library(data.table)
return(arg1)
$code$ LANGUAGE 'plr' STRICT;
select * from public.r_test(1);
The PostgreSQL server crashes with a segmentation fault caused by the r_test function call. If you comment the data.table loading, the function works fine.
In R, data.table loading works fine, the problem is only related to pl/R in PostgreSQL.
If you replace data.table v 1.18.0 by v 1.17.8 (or earlier), everything works fine.
On an Ubuntu Server 24.04, the problem does not occur.