What is an "assertion error" in regards to Sesame?

Yesterday I was doing some programming updates on my MIARA.dsr, on my own workstation.  Because I have to move the db to the file server for the lookups to work, I saved as a new db and copied the file to the file server.  Usually I open the new db on my workstation first before moving, to allow for the loading/saving routine that has to run after reconciling.  This time I did not, oops.

Once the db had been copied to the file server, I attempted to open it with Sesame server, which, at the time, had 3 other users connected to a different app.  Waiting, waiting, waiting, it's not opening, finally get the message "failed to connect to server; too many clients" or something like that.  Bummer.

Went over to the server to see how many clients it was registering, and found myself looking at an unfriendly little message box that told me there had been an "assertion error" related to Sesame.exe.  Click to acknowledge...and Sesame server crashes, all my clients disconnect, hilarity ensues.

I ran Sunlock on all my databases and started her up again, no problems.  Everything seems to be OK so far.  I trashed the db I was working on and made a new one, opened it on my workstation before migrating, and have had no problems with it since.  So that lesson is learned.

But what did I do and why did I crash?  Thanks for any help.

Hi Ray!
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One was out having a smoke, another was probably surfing for HQ versions of the new Lindsey Lohan nudes, and the third was inputting payables in the Real World A/P system.  Oh, you mean in Sesame?  No idea.  The program was most likely live on their desktops but not in active use.  One, at the most, probably had an Invoice record locked.
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Miara.db was in fact loaded; that's what those three would have been using.  However, my newly created app was named Miara2a.db.
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OK, thanks, will do, but it might not be until tomorrow.  Thanks Ray!

Infinity wrote on Feb 21^st, 2008 at 7:57pm:


An assertion error is due to the use of the "assert()" command in the source language of the executable (in the case of Sesame that would be C++). The assert command allows the programmer to ascertain if a particular critical condition is true. If it is not true the program comes to a sudden and immediate halt (as you have seen). Sesame itself contains very few of these, and those we have are turned off. But several of the libraries we use make heavy use of assert commands, most particularly the memory management library.