Safe Updates of a bazillion rows

If I want to update one column (all rows) in a table that has, say, a million rows, with two indices, and I dont want to blow out my lock table, or log files, is there a safe way, short of turning off logging and doing an exclusive lock and begin/commit work? Tuning logging off means the whole system has to come down, since turning on logging back on requires doing an archive (even if I fake the archive to /dev/null). I'd rather not turn off logging if I dont have to. I have 24 1000 kbyte logs, but could very well span all the logs with a single update statement. We are beginning to use informix for projects that have huge databases, and am getting worried. I'd hate to write esql/c or 4gl code that counts transactions for every little diddly issue like this. There must be a better way. I could use your ideas quickly, as I plan on being on site very shortly. -- Naomi Walker (aka N7FSA) Anasazi Inc. Phoenix, Arizona naomi%anasaz.UUCP@asuvax.eas.asu.edu Imagine the Universe Beautiful, Just, and Perfect. (Messiahs Handbook)