HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: billd@informix.com (William Daul)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Survey about members of user groups
Date: 5 Nov 92 19:06:10 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.
Originator: billd@cheetah

I have no idea how many folks read this list but here goes...

I would like to find out how many of you either belong to an Informix User
Group or would if there were/is one in your area.  

Try sending your messages directly to me.  If that fails you might leave a
note here (comp.databases.informix), or (Gulp!) give me a call <-- make this
your last choice.

Anyone interested in seeing a current list of user groups posted here?

--Bill
-- 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 William Daul             Advanced Support      INFORMIX SOFTWARE INC.
 4100 Bohannon Dr.        (415) 926-6488 - wk
 Menlo Park, CA. 94025    uunet!infmx!billd  or  billd@informix.com
From: jerry@jerry.mendota.ingr.com (Jerry Jugovich)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: defer interupt
Date: 13 Nov 1992 10:13:06 -0500
Organization: Mailing List Gateway
Distribution: world
Reply-To: jerry@jerry.mendota.ingr.com (Jerry Jugovich)
NNTP-Posting-Host: emory.mathcs.emory.edu
X-Informix-List-ID: <list.1601>

##### Initial post ############## 
>                                        # rep_var.name is a global variable #
>
>           output to report my_report ( rep_var.name ) # step into report #
>
>report my_report ( in_group )          # report using global variables  #
>                                       # that were selected by a cursor #
>
>                                        # must define variable even if passed# 
>                                        # a global variable ugh....          #
>define in_group like foo_table.foo_column

If it's a global variabe then you don't have to pass it and thus don't have
to define it in the report since you don't use a sort on it in the report,
or do you?
(At least I don't with I-OL 4.1 I4gl 4.1.)

                                With thanks for the reply

-> What I found was if the global variable was just used for printing in the
-> report this statement is true. BUT.... if the report used the passed global 
-> variable in a group by clause ( sort ) it had to be passed to the report. 
-> This meant it still had to have multiple reports if I wanted the same info 
-> but grouped by different attributes. As Result multiple reports. 
->
-> The reports were written under I-OL 4.0 I4gl 4.0 if this has changed please 
-> respond back. 
->
-> I still also would like to know why I can't put the output section in a 
-> IF THEN clause. If I could do that then those other duplicate reports 
-> could be nuked. So because of the report functionality of I4gl I must create 
-> and maintain at least two times the number of reports required. 
->
-> Idealy this could be acomplished with one report function instead of three. 
-> But who I am I to complain.......
->
-> Is any of this changed under 4.1 or above ?????

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 Mail Path: jerry@jerry.mendota.ingr.com        Jerry Jugovich
 Phone:     612 681-4450                        TIM Application Engineer
                                                Intergraph Corporation
                                                Mendota Heights Minnesota
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
From: seeb@cbnewsm.cb.att.com (Dick Seebach)
Subject: Re: The twin problem (was Re: HELP - Index Locks are creating DEADLOCKS)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Warren NJ
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 13:37:41 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.203538.29976@informix.com> cortesi@informix.com (David Cortesi) writes:
>
>The method used is to place a lock on the next higher index entry,
>and to require any transaction that would insert a value to 
>acquire a lock on the adjacent key.  This ensures that no other
>process can insert the original key until the first transaction
>completes.
>
>There is no basic difference between a lock conflict based on the twin
>problem and one caused by two processes trying to update the same row.
>Both result from two processes attempting to seize the same resource at
>the same time.
>
>Is this not so?
>
>Dave Cortesi
>  cortesi@informix.com

While the may be no 'basic difference' in low level INFORMIX code between
a lock on a row and a lock on an adjacent index key, there is a
VERY BIG DIFFERENCE at the user level, when several users are trying
to update a database, and their updates fail due to adjacent key locks,
rather than row locks.

We designed our application using row level locking for data integrity.
The very poorly (if at all) documented issue of adjacent key locking
has confused and frustrated our users, since they think they will not
see locking problems if they are not updating the same row as someone else.

It would be of some help to describe what 'adjacent keys' are.
Dave, can you post a description of adjacent keys, or point to a
definition in INFORMIX documentation (not Tech Notes; I have been
unable to get back copies from INFORMIX).
From: davek@informix.com (David Kosenko)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: Stored queries under INFORMIX 4.00 or INFORMIX 4.10
Date: 5 Nov 92 17:11:24 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.

In article <1992Nov4.162232.28445@walter.cray.com> n2976@cray.com writes:
>Does anybody know if INFORMIX 4.00 or INFORMIX 4.10 supports stored queries?
>
>If not what about 5.00? What about any INFORMIX product?
>

We do not support stored queries (I think what you really want here are
stored query plans, no?)

What 5.0 brings, though, is stored procedures.  This allows you to put
your sql into a stored procedure.  That query is optimized at procedure
create time, and the query plan stored with the procedure.  That query
plan will be used whenever that procedure is called (it would only be
reoptimized if the underlying table's structure should change).  This
gives you the same basic effect as a stored query plan.  It does require
that you call the procedure rather than issue the sql statement directly,
but procedures can be used just like a statement (e.g. you can declare
cursors against them, they can return sets of rows, etc.).

Dave
-- 
Disclaimer: These opinions are not those of Informix Software, Inc.
**************************************************************************
"I look back with some satisfaction on what an idiot I was when I was 25,
 but when I do that, I'm assuming I'm no longer an idiot." - Andy Rooney
From: walt@mathcs.emory.edu (Walt Hultgren {rmy})
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: Escape Characters in 4GL
Date: 13 Nov 1992 14:34:30 -0500
Organization: Emory University
NNTP-Posting-Host: emory.mathcs.emory.edu

In article <1992Nov13.183706.2455@hpcvusn.cv.hp.com> thaddeus@hpcvusd.cv.hp.com (Thaddeus Konar) writes:
>Is there a way to send escape characters (non-ascii) from 4GL

You can do something like:

    define xc char(6)
    let xc = "[", ASCII 27, "]&jB"
    display xc

The possible problem with this approach is that the DISPLAY statement will
append a newline to the output.  I don't know of a way to disable that at
the 4GL level.  You may have to write a C function callable from 4GL that
uses one of the variations of putc() or puts().

Walt.

-- 
Walt Hultgren              Internet: walt@rmy.emory.edu       (IP 128.140.8.1)
Emory University               UUCP: {...,gatech,rutgers,uunet}!emory!rmy!walt
954 Gatewood Road, NE        BITNET: walt@EMORY
Atlanta, GA  30329  USA       Voice: +1 404 727 0648
From: jparker@hpbs2776.boi.hp.com (Jack Parker)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Online Background Backups
Date: 13 Nov 1992 17:28:06 -0500
Organization: Mailing List Gateway
Distribution: world
Reply-To: jparker@hpbs2776.boi.hp.com (Jack Parker)
NNTP-Posting-Host: emory.mathcs.emory.edu
X-Informix-List-ID: <list.1608>

Folks,

	I know you aren't supposed to do them, but our operators are 
	archiving an entire data centers worth of disks off of several
	differing operating systems.  To assist them in dealing with
	five different Online instances we use a script which asks the 
	operator to mount the tape and then pipes a [RETURN] into tbtape -s.
	This has been working very successfully until engine number 5
	came up several weeks ago and required multiple volumes for an
	archive.  

	If we've sheltered the operator from the archive to this degree
	then how can we let them know about the second volume!  What
	would be nice is to determine BEFORE the archive how much data
	was to be written.  The only method I can think of offhand is 
	to grab the number of diskwrites from tbstat -D and determine
	the number of writes - over a period of time - which required the
	second volume.

	Any thoughts?

					Thanx in advance
						j.

_____________________________________________________________________________
Jack Parker - Contractor               | 
Hewlett Packard, BSMC Boise, Idaho, USA|     These don't look like opinions.
jparker@hpbs2651.boi.hp.com            |       Are you sure they're mine?
(208) 323-5388 (W)  (208) 384-1623 (H) |
_____________________________________________________________________________
From: dave.snyder@snide.com (Dave Snyder)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: missing SQL exec (std engine)
Date: 5 Nov 1992 21:43:04 -0500
Organization: Mailing List Gateway
Distribution: world
Reply-To: dave.snyder@snide.com (Dave Snyder)
NNTP-Posting-Host: emory.mathcs.emory.edu
X-Informix-List-ID: <list.1577>

Quoting galem@vnet.ibm.com...
} 
} We have a a process (let's call it XX) which -once started- lives
} forever and periodically updates a database by INSERTs and UPDATEs.
} When XX is first started, it opens the database (which remains open for
} the life of XX) causing an sqlexec child process to be spawned. Our
} problem is that occasionally the sqlexec child process disappears with-
} out a word, wimper or choke. It is just gone... without a trace! Pre-
} ceding its disappearance, at least some records have been INSERTed into
} some database tables. However, the amount of time which elapses between
} the insertions and the disappearance is very much variable. It may be
} minutes ... or hours. Has anyone seen a problem like this???
} 
} Upon detection of the disappeared sqlexec, we attempted closing the
} database and then opening it again. This fails with an error code of
} -457, WHICH IS NOT DOCUMENTED in any of our manuals. We have also been
} unable to obtain any information from Informix Tech Support regarding
} the meaning of this error code. Because we cannot reopen the database,
} it would appear that when the original engine exited, it was not done
} cleanly. But we haven't a clue about what we can look at to try and
} determine what has happened.
} 
From the Informix-5.0 Error Messages manual...

-457	SQL engine terminated unexpectedly
The database server process with which your application program was working
has terminated.  If it was Informix-ONLINE, the OnLine administrator may
have shut the system down.  If it was Informix-SE, it is possible that the
database server process was terminated deliberately using an operating
system command.  If a deliberate shutdown was not done, the next most likely
cause is an internal error.  The current transaction should be rolled back
automagically when the database is next opened.  Look for operating system
messages that might give more information.  If the problem recurs, please
note all circumstances and contact the Informix Technical Support Department.
NOTE:  Be sure to check the ISAM error code returned with this error.  If it
is -129, the database server has not terminated, but simply reached a limit
on the numbers of concurrent user sessions.

BTW, have you tried sqlstart() to restart the database?

DAS
-- 
David Snyder @ Snide Computer Services - Folcroft, PA          Current Release
                                                               is db4glgen-3.7
UUCP:  ..!uunet!das13!dave   INTERNET:  dave.snyder@snide.com
From: makke@wins.uia.ac.be (Marc Gemis)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: Informix 4GL arrays
Date: 10 Nov 1992 04:48:03 -0500
Organization: Mailing List Gateway
Distribution: world
Reply-To: makke@wins.uia.ac.be (Marc Gemis)
NNTP-Posting-Host: emory.mathcs.emory.edu
X-Informix-List-ID: <list.1579>

Aaron Pelton writes:
 > 
 >     In my quest for the answer to Informix vs Progress I've come across
 > a particular area, scrolling data on the screen, that Informix doesn't
 > seem to handle well.
 > 
 >    Given that I have a set of data that may be anywhere from 0 to n records
 > that I want to place in a scrolling region on the screen, can it be done
 > without a LOT of code to accomplish this?
 > 
 >    Arrays would solve the problem only I don't know ahead of time how big
 > it needs to be and it could be greater than several thousand records. (I
 > know, it's not likely, but Progress seems to do it naturally.....) Trying
 > it out I came up with just using INPUT, SCROLL and FETCHES. I use the
 > keyed data from the INPUT for updates so I have to close the cursor and
 > reopen it and so forth. I'm at 79 lines (w/ bugs still) and counting while
 > progress seems to be able to do it in about 10 lines. Sort of the reason
 > why we want to go to a 4gl......
 > 
 >    Can anyone recommend a direction to look for clues? Is it possible to
 > fool informix into using a malloc'd array?
 > 
 >    (Note: I admit it, I'm for informix but I have to convince the others of
 > the team.....)
 > -- 
 > Aaron Pelton		    | If it sounds like an opinion, it's probably mine.
 > aaron@satco.UUCP            | Only R. Crusoe could have it all done by Friday
 > {decvax,uunet}!virgin!satco!aaron
From: holder@gourde.positron.med.ge.com (Kacy Holder)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: Triggers in Informix?
Date: 6 Nov 92 00:03:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: gourde.HOLDER.92Nov5160328
	<1992Nov2.202421.24240@informix.com>
	<1992Nov4.235656.6016@datamark.co.nz>
	<1992Nov5.171359.7885@informix.com>
Organization: Computer People Unlimited, Milwaukee, WI



In article <1992Nov5.171359.7885@informix.com> davek@informix.com (David Kosenko) writes:
   Ian Franklin writes:
   >>Current release plans I believe (take this with a grain of salt, please) 
   >>call for
   >>a trigger implementation in a future Informix release (6.0, 7.0, ???).
   >>
   >I heard that a version of 5 was comming out in a few weeks for
   >trigger but am not to sure hiw reliable that is.

   Release 5.01 of Informix servers will include support of triggers.  This
   release is due on major platforms before the end of the year (1992).  See
   your local sales rep for a more specifi date for your plaform.



According to the sales preson we talked to yesterday, 5.01 became
available on October 31, 1992.  Call now and order yours
today! :-) :-)


--
Katharine C. Holder
Computer People Unlimited, Inc.
email: holderk@positron.med.ge.com

"These opinions are my own and not necessarily those of the client for whom 
 I am working or Computer People Unlimited, Inc."
From: davek@informix.com (David Kosenko)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: ISOLATION LEVEL...
Date: 11 Nov 92 15:06:35 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.

Chris Silvester asks:
>
>I'm working with 4gl and Online and I was wondering if there is any internal
>variable that indicates the current isolation level, or some other way of
>checking the current isolation level.  Any help would be appreciated.

Since the isolation level is tracked in the server process (sqlturbo), there
is nothing in the client product (4gl) to track the current isolation level.
The easiest way to do this is probably to maintain a global flag in your 4gl
code that gets reset whenever you change the isolation level.  Then you can
check your flag when you need to.  The isolation level will only change when
you change it.

Dave
-- 
Disclaimer: These opinions are not those of Informix Software, Inc.
**************************************************************************
"I look back with some satisfaction on what an idiot I was when I was 25,
 but when I do that, I'm assuming I'm no longer an idiot." - Andy Rooney
From: aland@informix.com (Colonel Panic)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: Informix and QNX
Date: 8 Nov 92 02:44:20 GMT
Organization: Helen Keller Bondurant's Performance Driving School for the Blind

In article <1992Nov2.203416.25304@informix.com> dsimon@informix.com writes:
>I show no listing for QNX* as an operating system with an available port.
>A salesrep may be able to provide you with more/better information.
>The sales/service number is 800-438-7627

No Informix DB products have ever been ported to QNX, nor (IMHO) are 
they likely to ever be...

>Thanx,
>don simon

--
Alan Denney      aland@informix.com      {pyramid|uunet}!infmx!aland

 "I like Saturdays best of all, when your exercise records play.
  The pictures shake on my wall; send a dozen leg-lifts my way.
  'Cause I feel you through the wall..."       - The Bobs, "Through the Wall"
From: villy@uunet.uu.net (Will Hartung - Master Rallyeist)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: Estimating sizes of indexes
Date: 12 Nov 1992 13:53:04 -0500
Organization: Mailing List Gateway
Distribution: world
Reply-To: villy@uunet.uu.net (Will Hartung - Master Rallyeist)
NNTP-Posting-Host: emory.mathcs.emory.edu
X-Informix-List-ID: <list.1596>

> Jim Kunzman writes:
[ stuff deleted ]
> >Can this be done easily?  
>
> For OnLine, this is covered (in the Guide to SQL Tutorial, pg 10-16) 
> Dave

Of course, for the REALLY lazy, I've found that if you do a DBSCHEMA on 
a table, in the little comment section at the top it gives you both the
size of the row, and the size of the index(es). The index size is the 
sum of all the indexes including their overhead/padding etc.

If you're looking for data to estimate OnLine extents, etc. those numbers
seem to follow the formula given in the Admin guide, and they sure beat the
heck out of adding them up yourself.

This was in 4.0/4.1 that I saw these numbers...

Will
(uunet!la4gen!villy)
From: mike@inftec.be (Mike Aerts)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Performance difference between ON-LINE and INFORMIX STAR/NET?
Date: 5 Nov 92 17:23:20 GMT
Organization: Information Technologies, Wemmel, Belgium.

My question is very simple :
Has somebody already done a benchmark between ON-LINE and
INFORMIX STAR/NET?
And what is the performace difference between reading,
writing and updating a table locally and remotely.
As usual if there is enough interest I will summarize to the net.

Many thanks in advance.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail : mike@inftec.BE     | I think that it's extraordinarly important
tel    : +32 2 460.46.11    | that we in computer science keep fun in
Fax    : +32 2 460.56.50    | computing. ....               A.J. Perlis
From: davek@informix.com (David Kosenko)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: Triggers in Informix?
Date: 12 Nov 92 16:33:11 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.

David S. Masterson writes:
>
>Will you be able to define more than one trigger (of different types) against
>a table?  That is, could each table have one each of BEFORE UPDATE, AFTER
>UPDATE, BEFORE INSERT, AFTER INSERT, etc. triggers?

You can specify only one trigger each (per table) of INSERT and DELETE, 
but each trigger can have both BEFORE and AFTER clauses to it (that is, 
a BEFORE INSERT and AFTER INSERT are not considered two triggers, but 
rather are created as a single trigger with two clauses).  You can have 
multiple UPDATE triggers, since they can refer to specific columns in the 
table (INSERT and DELETE always apply to an entire row). However, the
column names for multiple UPDATE triggers on the same table must be
mutually exclusive (that is, you cannot define two UPDATE triggers on
the same column in a table).

Dave

-- 
Disclaimer: These opinions are not those of Informix Software, Inc.
**************************************************************************
"I look back with some satisfaction on what an idiot I was when I was 25,
 but when I do that, I'm assuming I'm no longer an idiot." - Andy Rooney
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
From: kbrummel@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Karl P Brummel)
Subject: Comparing/passing records in 4GL/C
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 15:24:59 GMT

Howdy,

I'm interested in comparing two entire records at runtime, so I can tell if
one (which started out a copy of the first) is still the same as the first:
i.e., I want to detect if the record has been updated.  I can't do something
like 
if ( rec1 = rec2 ) then...
or 
if (rec1.* = rec2.*) then...
in 4GL, and I don't seem to be able to find a way to pass a pointer to a
record to a C function.  I can pass all the fields with 
call myfunc(rec1.*,rec2.*), 
but then I have to pop all the fields off the stack, which means I have to
know all the fields in the record.  What I want to do is get a pointer to
the first, a pointer to the second, find the size somehow (at run time)
and do a
memcmp(rec1,rec2,sizeof(rec));
or something similar.  The library function field_touched() almost does what
I want, so there must be a way to know this information at runtime.  Any
ideas how I write field_changed()?  Poking through the headers for 4GL
didn't give me any great ideas.  Thanks.

Oops, we are running Online 5.0, with tools version 4.10 on a HP9000/832 with
HPUX 8.0.
--
			Karl Brummel -- brumski+@osu.edu
		     "Because a mind is a terrible thing."
		"Speed isn't everything...it's the ONLY thing."
-- 
			Karl Brummel---brumski+@osu.edu
	  "Mr. MIPS, with the quick handspeed and the bag of tricks."
From: queiroz@pitanga.cmp.unicamp.br
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: System crashing after Informix
Date: 9 Nov 1992 06:53:24 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway

I have modified the kernel of our machine, a sparcserver 
390 running sunos 4.1.1 to support the informix.
I have added the following three lines:

options SEMMNS=500
options SEMMNI=128
options SEMMSL=200

SEMMI defines the maximum number of uniquely identified semaphore
clusters that may exist simultaneously. 
SEMMNS defines the maximum number of semaphores in the system.
(Definitions from the System Administration Manual)

We changed this because we couldn't load informix using the
raw device as its database. Informix uses shared memory and
without this changes we couldn't initialize the informix kernel.
Well, after the kernel was modified, the machine
started crashing at least three times a day. The following messages
are issued every time it crashes:
Oct 29 09:35:37 obelix vmunix: assertion failed:
off >= vp_off, file: ../../vm /vm_pvn.c, line: 133
Oct 29 09:35:37 obelix vmunix: panic: assertion failed
Oct 29 09:35:37 obelix vmunix: syncing file systems... [16] 1 [16]
[12] [4] done
Oct 29 09:35:37 obelix vmunix: 00290 low-memory static kernel pages
Oct 29 09:35:37 obelix vmunix: 00213 additional static and sysmap kernel pages

We have posted this same message to the sun-managers
list. One of the replies I received recommended 
the application of the patch
number 100338, but it didn't work.
Some others suggested different values for the
parameters I mentioned above but again it didn't work.
I suspect this is a problem with the OS, but I
don't really know.

We are quite desperate and if any of you could supply us
with any hints as to how to deal with this problem we will
be eternally grateful :-)

Please, reply directly to me at the address:
sandra@ccsun.unicamp.br

I will post my conclusions to the list afterwards.
Thanks again.

Sandra Regina de Souza
sandra@ccsun.unicamp.br
System Administrator
State University of Campinas
Computer Center
Campinas - Sao Paulo - Brazil


Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix