Oninit
Talk to an expert →

Informix Error -338

-338 Cannot drop audit trail.

An unexpected error occurred during the execution of a DROP AUDIT statement. Check the accompanying ISAM error code for more detailed information.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-338 is an unexpected error during execution of a DROP AUDIT statement — the official guidance points to the accompanying ISAM error code as the real diagnostic path, rather than describing a single specific root cause.

  1. Filesystem or disk-level problems affecting the audit-trail file's location, preventing a clean removal.
  2. A permissions issue preventing the server process from removing the audit-trail file.
  3. The audit-trail file was already removed or moved externally, outside of Informix's own audit-configuration tooling, leaving the server's internal state inconsistent with what's actually on disk.
  4. A locked or in-use file handle on the audit-trail file at the moment DROP AUDIT runs.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Check the accompanying ISAM error code first, per the official guidance, for the specific underlying condition.
  2. Check filesystem permissions and disk status at the audit-trail file's location.
  3. Confirm the audit-trail file wasn't manually moved or deleted outside of Informix's own tooling — if it was, the server's internal bookkeeping may be out of sync with reality.
  4. Check for any process holding the audit-trail file open at the time of the DROP AUDIT attempt.
Examples
Checking the audit-trail file's actual state before retrying
ls -la /informix/audit/audit_trail_1
-- confirm the file exists as Informix expects, with expected
-- permissions, before retrying DROP AUDIT
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Read the accompanying ISAM error code for the specific underlying reason.
  2. Check the audit-trail file's actual presence, permissions, and lock status on disk.
  3. Review the online log for related messages around the same timestamp.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -333 — "The audit trail file already exists with a different name." A related audit-trail lifecycle error, on the creation side.
  • -334 — "Cannot create audit trail." Another infrastructure-level audit-trail failure, on the creation side rather than the drop side.

This is an unexpected, infrastructure-level failure — the ISAM error code is the primary diagnostic signal, not the DROP AUDIT statement's own syntax or logic.