Informix Error -380

Reasons / Common Causes

-380 is an infrastructure-level failure while initializing a transaction log file: the server can't erase/clear it as part of setup, most commonly due to hardware errors or file permission problems.

1. File permission issues preventing the server process from erasing or truncating the log file.
2. Hardware-level errors — disk I/O failures affecting the filesystem where the log file resides.
3. Another process holding the log file open, preventing it from being erased/reinitialized.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Check the accompanying ISAM error code first, per the official guidance, for the specific underlying reason.
2. Check filesystem permissions on the log file for the Informix server process.
3. Check for hardware/disk-level problems in the online log and OS logs around the same timestamp.
4. Check whether another process has the log file open, preventing the erase operation.

Examples

Checking permissions and process handles

ls -la /informix/logs/sales.log
lsof /informix/logs/sales.log
-- confirm permissions look correct and no unexpected process
-- still has the file open

Diagnostic Checks

1. Read the accompanying ISAM error code for the specific underlying reason.
2. Check filesystem permissions on the log file.
3. Check for hardware/disk-level errors around the same timestamp.
4. Check for other processes holding the file open.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -375 — "Cannot create log file for transaction." A related transaction-log infrastructure failure, at the creation step rather than the erase/initialization step.
• -376 — "Log file already exists." Another related log-file setup failure, on the naming-conflict side.

This is an infrastructure-level failure during log initialization — the ISAM error code and filesystem/permission checks are the real diagnostic path, not the START DATABASE statement's own syntax.