To fix sy-subrc 15, you must stop thinking like an ABAPer and start thinking like a Linux Systems Administrator (or Windows Administrator). The operating system returned EACCES (Error: Permission denied) to the SAP kernel. Here is what causes that kernel error.
In ABAP, sy-subrc (Return Code) is a global system field that indicates the success or failure of the last operation. A 0 means success. Any non-zero value indicates a specific problem.
For standard OpenSQL operations, 4 might mean "no rows found." However, for low-level system operations—specifically File handling (OPEN DATASET) and External command execution (CALL 'SYSTEM')—the code 15 takes on a distinct personality. access denied sy-subrc 15
find /path/to/directory -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ; find /path/to/directory -type f -exec chmod 644 {} ;
Restart the SAP work process (or wait for a new work process to pick up the changed OS user group). To fix sy-subrc 15 , you must stop
According to SAP documentation, when using OPEN DATASET or CALL 'SYSTEM', sy-subrc 15 translates to:
"Access denied. No authorization for this access."
Wait—"No authorization"? Does this mean an SAP Authorization object (like S_DATASET or S_LOG_COM) is missing? Not exactly. This is the most common misconception. Restart the SAP work process (or wait for
While SAP authorizations play a role, sy-subrc 15 originates from the underlying operating system (Linux, AIX, or Windows). The kernel-level file system has rejected the request. The SAP authorization check happened earlier; sy-subrc 15 happens after the kernel tries to execute the command on the file system.