Fun Informix Support Tricks

Ready for an amusing Informix support story?... Today, I dialed into a client's system running OnLine 5.0 -- I had to take the database offline. I returned the database to online and disconnected. A little while later, the client calls to inform me that the database is offline. Hmmm? I could swear I put it back online! I dialed back to the client system and tried to run tbmonitor, but I couldn't because shared memory wasn't initialized. Well, tbinit had died, but the shared memory semaphore was still there, so I cleaned that up and restarted the engine. I signed-off the system... The client called back -- The database was offline. Huh? I dialed back to the system to look at the log -- I had to see what's going on! There was no record of anything since I first took the engine offline! That's wierd... I checked the configuration and I was looking at the correct log file. It took me a few minutes to realize that the engine was being taken offline by cron everynight and restart by root -- The ownership on the log file was write-only for root and I was starting the engine as 'informix'. Apparently, the OnLine engine couldn't write to the log file and redirected to standard output. When I signed off, there wasn't any standard output and the engine died! I changed permissions on the log file and the engine worked fine. But, for a short period, I thought I was losing my mind! Hope you enjoy the story... :-) -- See the happy moron, .................................................... He doesn't give a damn, .. Clay Irving personal: clay@panix.com .. I wish I were a moron, .. New York, NY work: clay@garpac.com .. My God! perhaps I am! ....................................................