Re: Will Oracle _ever_ provide a built in SYSTEM command in PL/SQL

Point taken. But...

It'll be very interesting to see how Oracle8/IFS/raw iron pad out longer term. I'd be very suprised if more 'system' style functionality wasn't included, regardless of what Larry says about the OS being unecessary. And even if this isn't in the first cut, it'll turn up sooner or later. Oracle8 as it stands can't do everything (not that anyone, except maybe Larry) says it can, and either that 'system' becomes subsummed into a database/OS hybrid, or we stick with what we have (unlikely).

I agree with your points for now, but after 15 years worth of programming 'around' Oracle and PL/SQL (and I'm lucky, I've extensive C/C++ and UNIX internals experience as well) I understand how the poster feels. I suppose this is what gets us to Larry's current mode of thinking - it's the data and how you manage it *totally* that matters, rather than this messy OS/DB mix that we have at the moment. But then maybe raw-iron is just for the low end and will stay there (and I don't believe that's what Larry intends), or maybe Java with it's security model is the longer term 'glue' answer...

Just my take.

Steve Phelan

(Oracle 7 & 8 OCP)

Thomas Kyte wrote:

> but anyway here is a potentially good reason why the database doesn't do it....
>
> system would run with the permissions of the process in the OS. consider what
> system( 'rm -rf $ORACLE_HOME' ); might do since the processes run as oracle....
>
> I'd hate that.
>
> In 8.0 and up, you have extprocs. extprocs run with the privs of the user who
> starts the LISTENER (not the database). This is good since you can start the
> listener for the extproc service as some other NON oracle user (eg: user=nobody
> or something).
>
> If you would like, i could send you the system command as an extproc for 8.0 and
> up.
>
> >Any body else feel that way?
> >
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>
> Thomas Kyte
> tkyte_at_us.oracle.com
> Oracle Service Industries
> Reston, VA USA
>
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> Opinions are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of Oracle Corporation
Received on Thu Feb 25 1999 - 16:18:25 CST