Every Ingres error message consists of an error code and the accompanying error message text.

All Ingres error codes begin with E_, followed by one or two letters plus a 4-digit hexadecimal number, and, optionally, descriptive text or the decimal equivalent of the hex error code. For example:

indicates a serialization failure (deadlock).

If the error is a local error, the two letters following E_ indicate which Ingres facility issued the error. If the error is a generic error number, the two letters are GE. The hexadecimal error code is unique for each error.

Local error codes are stored in $II_SYSTEM/ingres/files/english/messages/message.text

Generic error codes are stored in $II_system/ingres/files/generr.h