Re: Q: Want to Migrate 8i from WindowsNT to Linux

"Todd Gillespie" <toddg_at_linux127.ma.utexas.edu> wrote in message news:99teem$im0$1_at_geraldo.cc.utexas.edu...
> Howard J. Rogers <howardjr_at_www.com> wrote:
>
> : Stuffed, more like.
 

> : Anytime I see anyone recommend editing an export dump file in a text
 editor,
> : I get intrigued... has the person doing the recommending ever pulled
 this
> : trick off themselves reliably and repeatedly? 'Cos the dump file is a
> : binary file, not a text file, and you can confidently expect editing it
 to
> : result in total garbage.
>
> Whoops! You don't work on a Unix system! Sucks, don't it!
> I'm happy that I work on systems that don't draw a distinction between
> text & binary data.

I haven't a clue what you're on about, but I can assure you that I demo stuffing a dump file practically every time I run the DBA course (Chapter 15 is export and import). And those courses run on Solaris -which, last time I checked, counted as a Unix. And to demo the stuff-up, all one has to do is to open the file in the text editor of choice, press the space bar once, and opt to save.

Just to check that I wasn't going mad, I had some spare time whilst the Performance Tuning class were doing their Labs today, and I knocked this little test up (again, 8.1.5 on Solaris):

Create table newemp tablespace user_data as select * from scott.s_emp Exp full=y
Drop table newemp
edit the expdat.dmp file. Make one change -change 'tablespace USER_DATA' to 'tablespace BLAH'
Run import:

IMP-00038: Could not convert to environment character set's handle
IMP-00021: operating system error - error code (dec 2, hex 0x2)
IMP-00000: Import terminated unsuccessfully

(The import ran perfectly when a copy of the dump file which had not been edited was specified).

Hence, editing the dump file corrupted it. I tried it with both vi and pico.

> Oh, and yes, I've done what I have recommended on 4 sites already - and
> the reason I did so was that this is simpler than tracking tablespaces,
> types, roles, & users for a large, complex DB -- particularly if the
> previous DBA was less than fastitious (a problem we all face eventually).

Well, if you say you've done it, care to tell us how? What O/S was involved, what editor you used, any restrictions you've encountered when doing the deed. Because, as things stand, I've never once been able to pull that trick off, and I don't personally know anyone who has managed it either.

Regards
HJR Received on Thu Mar 29 2001 - 06:29:33 CST