Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!ihlpb!skennedy From: skennedy@ihlpb.ATT.COM (S. Kennedy) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Informix Trashed My 386 ... Message-ID: <9662@ihlpb.ATT.COM> Date: 20 Feb 89 23:48:36 GMT Reply-To: skennedy@ihlpb.UUCP (S. Kennedy) Followup-To: comp.databases Distribution: na Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 54 Informix SQL just happily trashed my OS. weeeeee. What happened? I haven't the foggiest idea, but trash it did. SCENARIO: --------- Informix SQL 2.10.0b on SCO SYSV 2.2.2, NEC 386 w/4M of Ram and 66M hard drive. 2 users most of the time. Using clustered indexes. Everything working fine when *WHAM* Nothing seems to work. Fine. I get a call telling me something's up. Tromp over on a Friday nite to take a look. Tells me that the I got a C-ISAM error when trying to read from the table. Great. So I run bcheck. Tells me I have a missing magic number. Look up in the manual and cannot find what a "magic number" is so I can repair. Perfect. I start poking around looking a some more of the system. I find: .per files turned into device drivers. .frm files turned into directories containing an exact copy of my .dbs directory (hosed version). most of /usr/bin hosed. *all* user account files have been replaced with copies of the terminfo of a visual terminal. I have no choice but to back to Thursday's tape to find that it, also is shot to hell. Went back to Wednesday's tape which (luckily :-( ) was still sane. Spend 10 hours reinstalling and everything's back up. So tell me, what happened?? What is a "magic number" and how can it be fixed when MIA? On a side note, in Informix 4GL, why is the word "dirty" a reserved word, but never described anywhere in the manuals as to it's use? A foreshadowing of something to come?? I really like Informix, but if this happens again, I'm not liable for my actions ...... :-) Shawn Kennedy skennedy@ihlpb.att.com AT&T Bell Labs att!ihlpb!skennedy Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with AT&T, BL or any connected facility.