Informix Error -547

Cause and resolution

Must rollforward database in the directory where the database is.

Before you execute the ROLLFORWARD statement, make the current directory the directory that contains the dbname.dbs directory for the database. Then execute the statement again.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-547 fires when a ROLLFORWARD DATABASE statement is issued from a current working directory other than the one containing the target database's dbname.dbs directory — on this platform, ROLLFORWARD requires being run from that specific location.

ROLLFORWARD DATABASE run from an unrelated working directory, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.
A restore/recovery script that cds to a staging or scratch directory before issuing the ROLLFORWARD, rather than the directory actually holding dbname.dbs.
Confusion about where the target database's dbname.dbs directory physically lives, especially on a host with multiple database instances or data directories.

Solutions / Resolution

Change to the directory containing the database's dbname.dbs directory, per the official guidance, before issuing ROLLFORWARD DATABASE:
```
cd /path/containing/dbname.dbs
```
Re-run the ROLLFORWARD DATABASE statement from that directory.

Examples

Running from the wrong directory

$ pwd
/home/dba/scripts
$ dbaccess - <<'EOF'
ROLLFORWARD DATABASE stores7;
EOF
-- -547: current directory doesn't contain stores7.dbs

Corrected

$ cd /export/disk/informix/data
$ ls
stores7.dbs
$ dbaccess - <<'EOF'
ROLLFORWARD DATABASE stores7;
EOF

Diagnostic Checks

Locate the target database's dbname.dbs directory on the filesystem before issuing ROLLFORWARD, and confirm the current working directory matches it exactly.

Related Errors / Related Topics

No closely related error codes are cross-referenced for -547 in this set yet.

A working-directory requirement, not a permissions or data problem — cd into the directory holding dbname.dbs first.