Informix Error -705: Cannot drop/modify procedure procedure-name. It is currently in use. An attempt was made either to drop a currently executing procedure or to run UPDATE STATISTICS on a currently running procedure. This condition can occur if a procedure tries to drop itself or if a nested procedure tries to drop a procedure that called it.

Reasons / Common Causes

-705 fires in several distinct situations, per the official guidance: dropping a currently executing procedure, running UPDATE STATISTICS on a currently running procedure, a procedure attempting to drop itself, a nested procedure trying to drop the procedure that called it, or attempting to drop a function/procedure that a functional index or an xadatasource type is currently using.

1. A procedure attempting to drop itself, per the official guidance's specific example — the procedure is, by definition, in use while it's running.
2. A nested procedure trying to drop a procedure that called it, per the official guidance — the caller is still active on the call stack.
3. DROP/UPDATE STATISTICS targeting a procedure while it's actively executing (in any session, not necessarily the one attempting the drop).
4. A function/procedure backing a functional index, or used by an xadatasource type, per the official guidance — dropping it would break that dependency while it's in use.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Use an ON EXCEPTION statement to trap this error, per the official guidance's documented correction, and simply not carry out the DROP PROCEDURE/UPDATE STATISTICS statement if the procedure turns out to be self-referential or otherwise in use — this is the recommended pattern for the self-drop/nested-caller scenarios specifically.
2. Wait until the procedure isn't actively executing before attempting to drop it or run UPDATE STATISTICS, for the general in-use case.
3. Check whether a functional index or xadatasource type depends on the routine, per the official guidance, before attempting to drop it — remove or redefine that dependency first if the drop is genuinely intended.

Examples

A procedure trying to drop itself, trapped with ON EXCEPTION

CREATE PROCEDURE self_destruct()
  ON EXCEPTION IN (-705)
    -- -705 trapped: this procedure is currently in use (it's running), skip the DROP
  END EXCEPTION
  DROP PROCEDURE self_destruct;
END PROCEDURE;

Checking for a functional-index dependency

SELECT idxname FROM sysindexes WHERE tabid =
  (SELECT tabid FROM systables WHERE tabname = 'documents');
-- review whether any listed index is functional and depends on the routine
-- being dropped

Diagnostic Checks

1. Determine which of the several scenarios applies: self-drop, nested-caller drop, a currently-executing procedure in another session, or a functional-index/xadatasource dependency.
2. For the self-drop/nested-caller case, wrap the DROP/UPDATE STATISTICS in an ON EXCEPTION per the official guidance, rather than trying to avoid the condition structurally.

Related Errors / Related Topics

No closely related error codes are cross-referenced for -705 in this set yet.

For a self-drop or nested-caller scenario specifically, the official guidance's own recommended fix is to trap the error with ON EXCEPTION rather than avoid it structurally.