Informix Error -512: No References privilege on the referenced columns.

Reasons / Common Causes

-512 is a privilege error specific to foreign keys: creating a REFERENCES constraint requires the References privilege on the columns being referenced, separate from and in addition to ordinary SELECT access to them.

1. CREATE TABLE/ALTER TABLE ... ADD CONSTRAINT with a REFERENCES clause pointing at columns the session lacks References privilege on — the direct, only cause.
2. Read access (SELECT) confused with References privilege — they're granted separately, so being able to query the referenced table doesn't imply the ability to build a foreign key against it.
3. A cross-schema foreign key to a table owned by a different user, where privileges were never explicitly granted across that ownership boundary.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Have the referenced table's owner (or a user holding References privilege with grant option) grant References privilege, per the official guidance:

   GRANT REFERENCES ON parent_table TO app_user;
   

2. Grant on specific columns only, if that's sufficient for the foreign key being built:

   GRANT REFERENCES (order_id) ON orders TO app_user;
   

3. Retry the CREATE TABLE/ALTER TABLE statement once the privilege is in place.

Examples

Hitting the restriction

CREATE TABLE order_items (
  item_id INT,
  order_id INT REFERENCES orders(order_id)
);
-- -512: app_user lacks References privilege on orders.order_id

Granting it and retrying

-- Run by the owner of 'orders':
GRANT REFERENCES (order_id) ON orders TO app_user;

-- Now succeeds:
CREATE TABLE order_items (
  item_id INT,
  order_id INT REFERENCES orders(order_id)
);

Diagnostic Checks

1. Query systabauth/syscolauth for existing privileges on the referenced table/columns to confirm whether References privilege specifically (not just Select) has been granted.
2. Identify the referenced table's owner before requesting the grant, since only the owner or a user with grant-option References privilege can issue it.

Related Errors / Related Topics

No closely related error codes are cross-referenced for -512 in this set yet.

References privilege is separate from Select — being able to query a table doesn't mean a foreign key can be built against it without an explicit grant.