missing SQL exec (std engine)

========================================================================= Has anyone seen this problem? We are running SCO unix version 3.2 with the Informix standard engine (ESQLC verion 4.00.UD2 and sqlexec version 4.00.UD2) on an Intel 386. We have a a process (let's call it XX) which -once started- lives forever and periodically updates a database by INSERTs and UPDATEs. When XX is first started, it opens the database (which remains open for the life of XX) causing an sqlexec child process to be spawned. Our problem is that occasionally the sqlexec child process disappears with- out a word, wimper or choke. It is just gone... without a trace! Pre- ceding its disappearance, at least some records have been INSERTed into some database tables. However, the amount of time which elapses between the insertions and the disappearance is very much variable. It may be minutes ... or hours. Has anyone seen a problem like this??? Upon detection of the disappeared sqlexec, we attempted closing the database and then opening it again. This fails with an error code of -457, WHICH IS NOT DOCUMENTED in any of our manuals. We have also been unable to obtain any information from Informix Tech Support regarding the meaning of this error code. Because we cannot reopen the database, it would appear that when the original engine exited, it was not done cleanly. But we haven't a clue about what we can look at to try and determine what has happened. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you. Gale (GALEM@VNET.IBM.COM)