diff --git a/src/backend/access/gin/ginfast.c b/src/backend/access/gin/ginfast.c
index d8624237ec1..f474ad6598e 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/gin/ginfast.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/gin/ginfast.c
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
  * Portions Copyright (c) 1994, Regents of the University of California
  *
  * IDENTIFICATION
- *			$PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/access/gin/ginfast.c,v 1.1 2009/03/24 20:17:10 tgl Exp $
+ *			$PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/access/gin/ginfast.c,v 1.2 2009/03/24 22:06:03 tgl Exp $
  *
  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  */
@@ -749,9 +749,10 @@ ginInsertCleanup(Relation index, GinState *ginstate,
 		 * XXX using up maintenance_work_mem here is probably unreasonably
 		 * much, since vacuum might already be using that much.
 		 */
-		if ( GinPageGetOpaque(page)->rightlink == InvalidBlockNumber ||
-			 ( GinPageHasFullRow(page) &&
-			   accum.allocatedMemory > maintenance_work_mem * 1024L ) )
+		if (GinPageGetOpaque(page)->rightlink == InvalidBlockNumber ||
+			(GinPageHasFullRow(page) &&
+			 (accum.allocatedMemory >= maintenance_work_mem * 1024L ||
+			  accum.maxdepth > GIN_MAX_TREE_DEPTH)))
 		{
 			ItemPointerData    *list;
 			uint32      		nlist;
diff --git a/src/backend/access/gin/gininsert.c b/src/backend/access/gin/gininsert.c
index d05882cdb94..f6a348eb85d 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/gin/gininsert.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/gin/gininsert.c
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
  * Portions Copyright (c) 1994, Regents of the University of California
  *
  * IDENTIFICATION
- *			$PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/access/gin/gininsert.c,v 1.19 2009/03/24 20:17:11 tgl Exp $
+ *			$PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/access/gin/gininsert.c,v 1.20 2009/03/24 22:06:03 tgl Exp $
  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  */
 
@@ -245,7 +245,9 @@ ginBuildCallback(Relation index, HeapTuple htup, Datum *values,
 														&htup->t_self);
 
 	/* If we've maxed out our available memory, dump everything to the index */
-	if (buildstate->accum.allocatedMemory >= maintenance_work_mem * 1024L)
+	/* Also dump if the tree seems to be getting too unbalanced */
+	if (buildstate->accum.allocatedMemory >= maintenance_work_mem * 1024L ||
+		buildstate->accum.maxdepth > GIN_MAX_TREE_DEPTH)
 	{
 		ItemPointerData *list;
 		Datum		entry;
diff --git a/src/include/access/gin.h b/src/include/access/gin.h
index f0f45bc5e8a..c591c53638c 100644
--- a/src/include/access/gin.h
+++ b/src/include/access/gin.h
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  *
  *	Copyright (c) 2006-2009, PostgreSQL Global Development Group
  *
- *	$PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/include/access/gin.h,v 1.29 2009/03/24 20:17:14 tgl Exp $
+ *	$PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/include/access/gin.h,v 1.30 2009/03/24 22:06:03 tgl Exp $
  *--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  */
 #ifndef GIN_H
@@ -26,6 +26,14 @@
 #define GIN_COMPARE_PARTIAL_PROC	   5
 #define GINNProcs					   5
 
+/*
+ * Max depth allowed in search tree during bulk inserts.  This is to keep from
+ * degenerating to O(N^2) behavior when the tree is unbalanced due to sorted
+ * or nearly-sorted input.  (Perhaps it would be better to use a balanced-tree
+ * algorithm, but in common cases that would only add useless overhead.)
+ */
+#define GIN_MAX_TREE_DEPTH 100
+
 /*
  * Page opaque data in a inverted index page.
  *
@@ -434,12 +442,9 @@ extern IndexTuple ginPageGetLinkItup(Buffer buf);
 
 /* gindatapage.c */
 extern int	compareItemPointers(ItemPointer a, ItemPointer b);
-extern void
-MergeItemPointers(
-				  ItemPointerData *dst,
+extern void MergeItemPointers(ItemPointerData *dst,
 				  ItemPointerData *a, uint32 na,
-				  ItemPointerData *b, uint32 nb
-);
+				  ItemPointerData *b, uint32 nb);
 
 extern void GinDataPageAddItem(Page page, void *data, OffsetNumber offset);
 extern void PageDeletePostingItem(Page page, OffsetNumber offset);