SIC Error Messages and Recovery Procedures

SIC may output a number of error messages. These are usually self explanatory, and most of them refer to typing errors, or to an unanticipated degree of complexity reached during the program execution (too many loops, macros, complex mathematic formulas, etc...). More severe errors may appear, usually due to internal logic errors in the calling program. SIC is a relatively safe program. However, its very flexible possibilities, and in particular the possibility of calling it as a command monitor in multi-language application, possibly written independently by different programmers, make it very difficult to be error free. This section list all the error messages written by SIC, and some (but not all) information messages. The format of a SIC message is the following

        C-FACILITY,  Explanation text

C is a letter indicating the severity of the message, and may be :

I for Information

W for Warning. Normal execution can proceed, but the operation was not completed.

E for Error. Something really went wrong, and a corrective action should (usually) take place. Suggested actions are mentioned.

F for Fatal Error. This is a programming error, either in SIC, or in the calling program, or an unrecoverable error causing a program abort (such as a PAUSE in batch sessions).

FACILITY is a mnemonic of the subroutine or of the command where the error occured.

"Explanation text" is a concise but usually self explanatory message.

In case of Fatal errors, the ``recovery procedure'' usually indicates to ``Submit an SPR''. An SPR is a Software Performance Report, and it should be sent to the SIC authors, by E-Mail at

          gildas@iram.fr

(GILDAS is a reserved account for all GILDAS software).

List of Error Messages