Re: Updating sysdefaults

Thanks Art. I was pretty sure it was a bad idea. The manual writers should avoid tempting us by mentioning that the system catalog tables can be updated by user informix or anyone with DBA privileges. "Art S. Kagel" <kagel@bloomberg.net> wrote: >Jeff Larsen wrote: >> >> Our salesmen are always changing their minds about default >> values for new customer records. We have a 24-7 system and >> I have to kick everybody out just to be able to execute... >> >> alter table customer modify rate char(1) default 'V';>> >> I know the manual says DON'T DO IT, but just how much trouble >> could I get in by executing... >> >> update sysdefaults set default = 'V' where tabid = 252 and colno = 23;> >Remember that the data dictionary for active tables is cached in the data >dictionary cache (onstat -g dic) so if you manually change the sysdefaults >you will not affect any running inserts or even new ones until the >dictionary cache is invalidated (or the engine bounces) which is done as >part of the ALTER TABLE processing. > >Let me add my voice to that of the manual writer: DON'T DO IT! There are >a VERY SMALL handful of columns in the system catalog tables that you can >safely update and half of those are only safe because there are there for >future use which only means they'll break when you upgrade someday. > >Art S. Kagel