Informix Error -388

-388 No resource permission.

If you issued a CREATE TABLE, CREATE INDEX, or CREATE PROCEDURE statement, you cannot execute this statement because your account has not been granted the RESOURCE privilege for this database. You need the RESOURCE privilege to create permanent tables, indexes on permanent tables, and procedures.

If you issued a SET statement, START VIOLATIONS TABLE statement, or STOP VIOLATIONS TABLE statement, you cannot execute this statement because your account has not been granted the RESOURCE privilege for this database. You need the RESOURCE privilege to execute the SET statement for a constraint, trigger, or index defined on a table in the current database. You also need the RESOURCE privilege to execute the START VIOLATIONS TABLE or STOP VIOLATIONS TABLE statement on a base table in the current database.

To recover from this error, contact a person who has the DBA privilege on this database and ask to be granted the RESOURCE privilege for the database.

-388 No resource permission.

If you issued a CREATE DATABASE statement in an 8.32 database server, you cannot execute this statement because you are not in the group specified in the ONCONFIG file parameter DBCREATE_GRP.

To be included in the operating system group specified in DBCREATE_GRP, see your system administrator.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-388 covers a RESOURCE-privilege gap across three distinct scenarios that all surface the same message:

CREATE TABLE/CREATE INDEX/CREATE PROCEDURE attempted without RESOURCE privilege granted on the current database.
SET, START VIOLATIONS TABLE, or STOP VIOLATIONS TABLE statements attempted without RESOURCE privilege on the current database.
CREATE DATABASE on an 8.32 server, where the current OS user isn't a member of the operating-system group named by the DBCREATE_GRP parameter in the ONCONFIG file — a system-level, not SQL-level, privilege check in this specific case.

Solutions / Resolution

For scenarios 1 and 2, contact a DBA to grant RESOURCE privilege, per the official guidance:
```
GRANT RESOURCE TO app_user;
```
For scenario 3 (8.32 CREATE DATABASE), work with a system administrator to add the OS user to the group named by DBCREATE_GRP in the server's ONCONFIG file — this can't be resolved with a SQL GRANT at all.
Identify which scenario applies first — the statement type determines whether the fix is a database-level GRANT or an OS-level group membership change.

Examples

Granting RESOURCE for CREATE TABLE/INDEX/PROCEDURE

GRANT RESOURCE TO app_user;

Checking DBCREATE_GRP for the 8.32 CREATE DATABASE case

grep DBCREATE_GRP $ONCONFIG
-- confirm the OS group named here, then check OS-level group
-- membership for the user attempting CREATE DATABASE

Diagnostic Checks

Identify the specific statement type that failed — this determines whether the fix is a SQL-level GRANT or an OS-level group membership issue.
For CREATE DATABASE on 8.32, check DBCREATE_GRP in ONCONFIG and the user's OS group membership.
For everything else, check RESOURCE privilege on the current database for the user.

Related Errors / Related Topics

-387 — "No connect permission." A related database-level privilege gap, one level below RESOURCE in terms of what it permits.
-315 — "No create index permission." A related, narrower privilege restriction — specifically about CREATE INDEX, one of the several statement types RESOURCE privilege also covers more broadly.

Identify the specific statement type first — a CREATE DATABASE failure on 8.32 needs an OS-level group-membership fix, not a SQL GRANT, while everything else needs RESOURCE privilege granted via SQL.