Informix Error -26158: File is incorrectly specified as a PIPE type: (file)=(%s).

Cause and resolution

File is incorrectly specified as a PIPE type: (file)=(%s).

The file named in the external table was called a "PIPE" file type, but it is not a UNIX named pipe. If this file is a disk file, change the file type in the external table to "DISK".

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-26158 fires when an external table's file is declared type PIPE but isn't a UNIX named pipe — per the official guidance.

The file is a regular disk file declared as PIPE, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause named.

Solutions / Resolution

Change the external table's file type to DISK, per the official guidance, if the file is genuinely a disk file.

Examples

A disk file declared as PIPE

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE ext_tab SAMEAS orders
  USING (DATAFILES ("PIPE:/data/orders.unl"), ...);
-- -26158: orders.unl is a regular disk file, not a named pipe

Corrected

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE ext_tab SAMEAS orders
  USING (DATAFILES ("DISK:/data/orders.unl"), ...);

Diagnostic Checks

Check the file's actual type on disk (ls -l/file), and match the external table's declared file type to it.

Related Errors / Related Topics

-26157 — "File is incorrectly specified as a DISK type: (file)=(%s)." The mirror-image error, declaring a named pipe as DISK rather than a disk file as PIPE.

An external table file declared PIPE was actually a regular disk file — declare it DISK instead.