GPDB 5.x gpexpand: Table failed to expand: too many values to unpack

Products

• VMware Tanzu Greenplum

Issue/Introduction

Error "failed to expand: too many values to unpack" occurs during the redistribution phase of gpexpand in GPDB 5.x:
 

$ gpexpand
20231020:15:40:49:029360 gpexpand:gpdb-zero-m:gpadmin-[INFO]:-local Greenplum Version: 'postgres (Greenplum Database) 5.29.12 build commit:7ff41391aa5b32fd9c6f63ae2dd920059e1f0507'
20231020:15:40:49:029360 gpexpand:gpdb-zero-m:gpadmin-[INFO]:-master Greenplum Version: 'PostgreSQL 8.3.23 (Greenplum Database 5.29.12 build commit:7ff41391aa5b32fd9c6f63ae2dd920059e1f0507) on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC) 6.2.0, 64-bit compiled on Aug 10 2023 18:54:00'
20231020:15:40:49:029360 gpexpand:gpdb-zero-m:gpadmin-[INFO]:-Querying gpexpand schema for current expansion state
20231020:15:40:49:029360 gpexpand:gpdb-zero-m:gpadmin-[ERROR]:-Table dottable.public.dottedtable.name1 failed to expand: too many values to unpack

The table is defined with a dot/period in the name:

# create table "dottedtable.name1" (id int);

Environment

Product Version: 5.29

Resolution

This is a known issue in GPDB 5.x, fixed in 6.x.

Workaround is to rename the table without the dot and retry the expansion.