Introduction 15
Error Message Files
■TheDB-Access User ’sManual describes how to invoke the utility to
access, modify, and retrieve information from OnLine relational
databases.
■When errors occur, you can look them up by number and find their
causeand solution in the IBM Informix Error Messages manual. If you
prefer,you can look up the error messages in the online message file
described in“Error Message Files” on page 15.
Error Message Files
Informix software products provideASCII files that contain all the Informix
error messages and their corrective actions. To access the error messages in
the ASCII file, Informix provides scripts that let you display error messages
on the terminal or print formatted error messages.
The optionalIBM Informix Messages and Corrections product provides
PostScriptfiles that contain the error messages and their corrective actions. If
you have installed this product, you can print the PostScript files on a
PostScript printer.

Using the ASCII Error Message File

Youcan use the file that contains the ASCII text version of the error messages
and their corrective actions in two ways:
■Use thefinderr script to display one or more error messages on the
terminal screen.
■Use therofferr script to print one error message or a range of error
messages.
The scripts are in the$INFORMIXDIR/bin directory. The ASCII file has the
following path:
$INFORMIXDIR/msg/errmsg.txt
Theerror message numbers range from -1 to -33000. When you specify these
numbersfor the finderr or rofferr scripts, you can omit the minus sign. A few
messages have positive numbers; these messages are used solely within the
applicationdevelopment tools. In the unlikely event that you want to display
them, you must precede the message number with a + sign.