Read assertion failures in the message log and dump files

The following example shows the form that assertion failures take in the message log.
Assert Failed: Short description of what failed
   Who: Description of user/session/thread running at the time
   Result: State of the affected database server entity
   Action: What action the database server administrator should take
   See Also: file(s) containing additional diagnostics

The See Also: line contains one or more of the following file names:

  • af.xxx
  • shmem.xxx
  • gcore.xxx
  • gcore.xxx
  • /path name/core

In all cases, xxx is a hexadecimal number common to all files associated with the assertion failures of a single thread. The files af.xxx, shmem.xxx, and gcore.xxx are in the directory that the ONCONFIG parameter DUMPDIR specifies.

The file af.xxx contains a copy of the assertion-failure message that was sent to the message log, and the contents of the current, relevant structures and data buffers.

The file shmem.xxx contains a complete copy of the database server shared memory at the time of the assertion failure, but only if the ONCONFIG parameter DUMPSHMEM is set to 1 or to 2.

UNIX only: On UNIX™, gcore.xxx contains a core dump of the database server virtual process on which the thread was running at the time, but only if the ONCONFIG parameter DUMPGCORE is set to 1 and your operating system supports the gcore utility. The core file contains a core dump of the database server virtual process on which the thread was running at the time, but only if the ONCONFIG parameter DUMPCORE is set to 1. The path name for the core file is the directory from which the database server was last invoked.