RE: -113 ISAM error: - the file is locked

This is Informix's favourite error (I'm convinced)... We used to get this error alot in 2.10 (sometimes erroneously)... 5.02 cleared it up some. Anyway, I'll tell you about a BUG having to do with locking in EVERY version of Informix Standard Engine (I don't know about Online). BEGIN WORK DECLARE UPD_CUR CURSOR FOR UPDATE .............. OPEN UPD_CUR FETCH UPD_CUR /*** NOW THAT ROW YOU JUST FETCHED SHOULD BE LOCKED, RIGHT???? ***/ /*** THE LOCK IS NOT PROPERLY PROMOTED UNTIL AN ACTUAL UPDATE OCCURS *** THIS OCCURRED SO INFREQUENTLY (It depends upon a usually VERY small window of opportunity) that it took me 2 years to convince Informix that it was their bug (and not mine). I parsed the transaction log (after nitpicking over my own code) and found the following USER A: BEGIN WORK FETCH (For Update) USER B: BEGIN WORK FETCH (For Update----THIS SHOULD HAVE FAILED) UPDATE...WHERE CURRENT OF... COMMIT WORK USER A: UPDATE...WHERE CURRENT OF... COMMIT WORK - The table in question was a serial number which was assigned as a primary key to various transaction header tables. It was possible for both of these transactions to go through (in certain cases) and cause a later transaction to fail because of an attempt to insert a duplicate key. (And of course it only happens under heavy (highly concurrent) usage...(busy season) and has the potential to prevent any transactions from commiting.... Hooray Informix