SDE 3.x for Informix: Invalid entity type mask (cause: long table name)

Error Message

Running shp2sde like this:

shp2sde -o create -l mytable_has_a_big_name,shape -f myshpfile -S "Rights of Ways" -g 256,0,0 -c 1000 -x 6000000,1800000,1000 -a file=crossref.txt -G 26946 -e a+ -v -u sdetest -p mypasswd -s server1 -D mydb -i esri_sde

Produces this error:

ESRI SDE Shape to Layer Loading Utility Tue Jul 11 08:45:09 2000
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SDE Code (-31): Invalid entity type mask (Error in SE_layer_create())
Delete layer "mytable_has_a_big_name" ...

Cause

The name of the table (and thus the layer) is too long. The extra long string is corrupting the parsing of entity type command option.

Solution or Workaround