The function reconnect reconnects database to its underlying RDBMS. If successful, success is t and the variable *default-database* is set to the newly reconnected database.
The default value for database is *default-database*. If database is a database object, then it is used directly. Otherwise, the list of connected databases is searched to find one with database as its connection specifications (see connect). If no such database is found, then if error and database are both non-nil an error is signaled, otherwise reconnect returns nil.
force controls whether an error should be signaled if the existing database connection cannot be closed. When non-nil (this is the default value) the connection is closed without error checking. When force is nil, an error is signaled if the database connection has been lost.
force non-nil might result in a memory leak if the database driver fails to release its memory (some drivers do not allow the connection to be closed if the underlying RDBMS is not responding).
LispWorks User Guide and Reference Manual - 13 Feb 2015