Error messages from Adaptive Server are sent only to the user’s screen.
The stacktrace from fatal error messages (severity levels 19 and higher) and error messages from the kernel are also sent to an error log file. The name of this file varies; see the configuration documentation for your platform or the Utility Guide.
The error log file is owned by the user who installed Adaptive Server (or the person who started Adaptive Server after an error log was removed). Permissions or ownership problems with the error log at the operating system level can block successful start-up of Adaptive Server.
Adapitve Server creates an error log for you if one does not already exist. You specify the location of the error log at start-up with the errorlogfile parameter in the runserver file or at the command line. The Sybase installation utility configures the runserver file with $SYBASE/install as the location of the error log if you do not choose an alternate location during installation. If you do not specify the location in the runserver file or at the command line, the location of the error log is the directory from which you start Adaptive Server. For more information about specifying the location of the error log, see description of the dataserver command in the Utility Guide.
Always start Adaptive Server from the same directory, or with the runserver file or the error log flag, so that you can locate your error log.
Each time you start a server, messages in the error log provide information on the success (or failure) of the start and the recovery of each database on the server. Subsequent fatal error messages and all kernel error messages are appended to the error log file. If you need to reduce the size of the error log by deleting old or unneeded messages, you must “prune” the log while Adaptive Server is shut down.