Re: ??? Executing a Unix command from PL/SQL

From: Thomas Kyte <tkyte_at_us.oracle.com>
Date: 1998/05/13
Message-ID: <355d249e.17568802@192.86.155.100>#1/1

A copy of this was sent to Bjorn Borud <borud_at_guardian.no> (if that email address didn't require changing) On 13 May 1998 15:58:19 +0200, you wrote:

>[tkyte_at_us.oracle.com (Thomas Kyte)]
>|
>| See chapter 10 in the PL/SQL manual. Its about External Procedures
>| which let you call C from PL/SQL directly. Basically, you'll create
>| a .dll on NT or .so on Unix and then you'll be able to call the
>| functions/procedures in that after you map them to pl/sql.
>
>this is something that I've been scanning the docs of Oracle for, but
>never been able to find. I looked in the PL/SQL 2.3 manual but I
>didn't find anything there.
>
>in what versions of Oracle is this possible (i generally use 7.3 under
>HP-UX and Solaris)?
>
>are there any resources available on the web describing this
>mechanism?
>
>-Bjørn

Its (external procedure) are only available with Oracle8.0 and up.

A quick and dirty way to do this is with a csh script and sqlplus as such (cut and pasted from another email)

Ok, so can you do this without C? Yes. Here is a PL/SQL subroutine you can install in your schema:

create or replace procedure host( cmd in varchar2 ) as

    status number;
begin

    dbms_pipe.pack_message( cmd );
    status := dbms_pipe.send_message( 'HOST_PIPE' );     if ( status <> 0 ) then raise_application_error( -20001, 'Pipe error' );     end if;
end;
/

Here is a C-Shell script you can run in the background (instead of using the PLEX binary, use this shell script)

• bof ---------------------------- #!/bin/csh -f

sqlplus tkyte/tkyte <<"EOF" | grep '^#' | sed 's/^.//' > tmp.csh  

set serveroutput on  

declare

        status  number;
        command varchar2(255);
begin
        status := dbms_pipe.receive_message( 'HOST_PIPE' );
        if ( status <> 0 ) then
                dbms_output.put_line( '#exit' );
        else
                dbms_pipe.unpack_message( command );
                dbms_output.put_line( '##!/bin/csh -f' );
                dbms_output.put_line( '#' || command );
                dbms_output.put_line( '#exec host.csh' );
        end if;

end;
/
spool off
"EOF"   chmod +x tmp.csh
exec tmp.csh

----------------------- EOF ---------------------------------

If you run this in the background (The script), you'll be able to have it execute any host command you want. Run this in one window for example and in anther window go into sql*plus and try:

SQL> exec host( 'ls -l' );
SQL> exec host( 'uptime' );
SQL> exec host( 'echo Hello World' );
SQL> exec host( 'exit' );

You'll see the output of ls -l, uptime, and echo happen on the other window where the shell script is running (shows you a way to debug pl/sql routines, use "host( echo some string )" and you'll get real time feedback from your pl/sql procedure).....  

Thomas Kyte
tkyte_at_us.oracle.com
Oracle Government
Herndon VA  

http://govt.us.oracle.com/ -- downloadable utilities  

---

Opinions are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of Oracle Corporation  

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