Chapter 5. Principles of Debugging

If Sherlock Holmes were alive today, he'd probably be in the computer troubleshooting business. With the avowed knowledge that it could be very easy to take this analogy way too far, we'll attempt to outline a method for the common-sense debugging of Informix problems.

The person who's attempting to solve a difficult system problem is in much the same position as someone who's trying to solve a mystery. The perpetrators of the problem are probably gone, all that's left are the clues (some real, some red herrings), and there may or may not be witnesses who are helpful.