What does ISAM 113 error: the file is locked mean?

Hello!

-113 ISAM error: the file is locked.

Another user request has opened the file (table) that was requested in
exclusive mode. In systems that use files for locking, a tablename.lok
file
exists. Possibly such a file was left behind when another program
terminated
abnormally. If you are sure that is the case, you can release the lock
by
emptying that file. Lock files are not used in many systems, and they
are
never used with IBM Informix Dynamic Server or IBM Informix OnLine
Dynamic Server.

This error occurs with IBM Informix Dynamic Server or IBM Informix
OnLine Dynamic
Server when a user attempts to access a table that has been locked.

For C-ISAM programs, rerun the program after the file is unlocked. For
SQL products, tables are locked explicitly using the LOCK TABLE
statement
and implicitly during the execution of the CREATE INDEX or ALTER TABLE
statement. Rerun the program or query when the table is unlocked.

If you get this error (-113) when using a transaction isolation mode of
REPEATABLE READ or SERIALIZABLE, and if your query did not use an index
(and therefore had to use a sequential scan of the entire table), the
cause
of the error might be that another user had either an exclusive lock or
a
promotable lock on at least one row in the table. If you are in
REPEATABLE
READ or SERIALIZABLE mode and your query requires a scan (search) of
every
single record in the table to find all the records that meet the
conditions
in the WHERE clause, then the engine will need to lock every record in
the
table to maintain the repeatability of the read. In practice, rather
than
locking every single record, the engine will try to lock the entire
table.
But if there are any exclusive locks, or even promotable locks, on any
row
in the table, then the engine will not be able to get a shared lock on
the
entire table, and the query will fail.

Hope it helps, ok?
Best regards.


Alexandre Marini
DBA Specialist
SEFAZ-MS / SGI-UGSGR / Sistemas IBM-Informix

IBM Certified Professional - Informix Dynamic Server v.10 / v.11