I created a commit with mercurial and wrote a 260 character commit message (on command line, so I was driving blind and didn't use newlines).
I couldn't find any additional related logs on server in nginx/php-fpm or mysql logfiles.
host128:java cspeck$ hg ci -m "[insert 260-character message here]" host128:java cspeck$ arc diff --update D12 --trace libphutil loaded from '/Users/cspeck/Projects/phacility/libphutil/src'. arcanist loaded from '/Users/cspeck/Projects/phacility/arcanist/src'. Config: Reading user configuration file "/Users/cspeck/.arcrc"... Config: Did not find system configuration at "/etc/arcconfig". Working Copy: Reading .arcconfig from "/Users/cspeck/Source/enad/java/.arcconfig". Working Copy: Path "/Users/cspeck/Source/enad/java" is part of `hg` working copy "/Users/cspeck/Source/enad/java". Working Copy: Project root is at "/Users/cspeck/Source/enad/java". Config: Did not find local configuration at "/Users/cspeck/Source/enad/java/.hg/arc/config". >>> [0] <conduit> user.whoami() <bytes = 117> >>> [1] <http> https://phab.mycompany.com/api/user.whoami <<< [1] <http> 511,973 us <<< [0] <conduit> 512,176 us >>> [2] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg status <<< [2] <exec> 387,786 us >>> [3] <event> diff.didCollectChanges <listeners = 0> <<< [3] <event> 54 us >>> [4] <conduit> differential.query() <bytes = 146> >>> [5] <http> https://phab.mycompany.com/api/differential.query <<< [5] <http> 241,158 us <<< [4] <conduit> 241,308 us >>> [6] <conduit> differential.getcommitmessage() <bytes = 169> >>> [7] <http> https://phab.mycompany.com/api/differential.getcommitmessage <<< [7] <http> 86,217 us <<< [6] <conduit> 86,375 us >>> [8] <conduit> differential.parsecommitmessage() <bytes = 1147> >>> [9] <http> https://phab.mycompany.com/api/differential.parsecommitmessage <<< [9] <http> 65,885 us <<< [8] <conduit> 66,027 us >>> [10] <event> diff.didBuildMessage <listeners = 0> <<< [10] <event> 32 us >>> [11] <exec> $ nano '/var/folders/kw/22j3hs0j08v7lr6j448pm8lw0000gn/T/edit.93gu9d5flxs8kcsw/differential-update-comments' <<< [11] <exec> 6,198,293 us Linting... >>> [12] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg help phase <<< [12] <exec> 76,761 us >>> [13] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg branch <<< [13] <exec> 69,983 us >>> [14] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg log --branch 'default' -r 'draft()' --style default <<< [14] <exec> 267,610 us >>> [15] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg parents --style default --rev '.' <<< [15] <exec> 87,684 us >>> [16] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg parents --style default --rev '7c78b5dfb01f' <<< [16] <exec> 98,653 us >>> [17] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg parents --style default --rev '0d164fee36f0' <<< [17] <exec> 94,965 us >>> [18] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg parents --style default --rev 'b7a2eb14716d' <<< [18] <exec> 95,936 us >>> [19] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg parents --style default --rev '6c34544708d2' <<< [19] <exec> 95,276 us >>> [20] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg parents --style default --rev '72e6647e79eb' <<< [20] <exec> 96,503 us >>> [21] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg parents --style default --rev 'ad0c9585c425' <<< [21] <exec> 94,930 us >>> [22] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg parents --style default --rev 'a7731f7a89c6' <<< [22] <exec> 98,602 us >>> [23] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg parents --style default --rev '98ea4a45a933' <<< [23] <exec> 95,340 us No lint engine configured for this project. Running unit tests... No unit test engine is configured for this project. >>> [24] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg diff --git -U32767 --rev 'e9db07b69464' -- '' <<< [24] <exec> 343,248 us >>> [25] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg cat --rev 'e9db07b69464' --output '/var/folders/kw/22j3hs0j08v7lr6j448pm8lw0000gn/T/8cw2tdh1ohgc840w/%p' -- <<< [25] <exec> 79,573 us >>> [26] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg cat --rev '.' --output '/var/folders/kw/22j3hs0j08v7lr6j448pm8lw0000gn/T/7t28q6jqe4socwwg/%p' -- <<< [26] <exec> 78,830 us >>> [27] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg log -l 1 --template '{node}' -r 'e9db07b69464' -- <<< [27] <exec> 94,095 us >>> [28] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg bookmarks <<< [28] <exec> 77,347 us >>> [29] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg svn info <<< [29] <exec> 105,832 us >>> [30] <conduit> repository.query() <bytes = 156> >>> [31] <http> https://phab.mycompany.com/api/repository.query <<< [31] <http> 141,133 us <<< [30] <conduit> 141,288 us >>> [32] <conduit> differential.creatediff() <bytes = 887782> >>> [33] <http> https://phab.mycompany.com/api/differential.creatediff <<< [33] <http> 804,968 us <<< [32] <conduit> 805,127 us >>> [34] <event> diff.wasCreated <listeners = 0> <<< [34] <event> 36 us >>> [35] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg log --template '{node}{rev}{author}{date|rfc822date}{branch}{tag}{parents}{desc}' --rev '('\''e9db07b69464'\''::. - '\''e9db07b69464'\'')' --branch 'default' -- <<< [35] <exec> 100,694 us >>> [36] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg parents --template '{node}\n' --rev '98ea4a45a933a71760b3e1bb49adda25d8d7e89e' >>> [37] <exec> $ HGPLAIN=1 hg parents --template '{node}\n' --rev '0d164fee36f0be99cfadfaebfb7ff0af46fdb7c7' <<< [36] <exec> 86,285 us <<< [37] <exec> 85,842 us >>> [38] <conduit> differential.setdiffproperty() <bytes = 9567> >>> [39] <http> https://phab.mycompany.com/api/differential.setdiffproperty <<< [39] <http> 156,501 us <<< [38] <conduit> 156,656 us >>> [40] <conduit> differential.updaterevision() <bytes = 1568> >>> [41] <http> https://phab.mycompany.com/api/differential.updaterevision <<< [41] <http> 193,675 us <<< [40] <conduit> 193,814 us [2015-04-23 21:58:49] EXCEPTION: (HTTPFutureHTTPResponseStatus) [HTTP/500] Internal Server Error {"result":null,"error_code":"ERR-CONDUIT-CORE","error_info":"#1406: Data too long for column 'description' at row 1"} at [<phutil>/src/future/http/BaseHTTPFuture.php:337] arcanist(head=master, ref.master=9ddf37b9ee3e), phutil(head=master, ref.master=20d43107280d) #0 BaseHTTPFuture::parseRawHTTPResponse(string) called at [<phutil>/src/future/http/HTTPSFuture.php:414] #1 HTTPSFuture::isReady() called at [<phutil>/src/future/Future.php:39] #2 Future::resolve(NULL) called at [<phutil>/src/future/FutureProxy.php:36] #3 FutureProxy::resolve() called at [<phutil>/src/conduit/ConduitClient.php:57] #4 ConduitClient::callMethodSynchronous(string, array) called at [<arcanist>/src/workflow/ArcanistDiffWorkflow.php:525] #5 ArcanistDiffWorkflow::run() called at [<arcanist>/scripts/arcanist.php:378]