Re: Sure-fire "kill"

Joel Garry wrote:

> Daniel Morgan <damorgan_at_exxesolutions.com> wrote in message news:<3F156F24.1DF9F7CC_at_exxesolutions.com>...
> > Joel Garry wrote:
> >
> > > Fred <noway_at_jose.com> wrote in message news:<noway-0F6052.14454715072003_at_vienna7.his.com>...
> > > > There is a setting in INIT.ORA that has the unintended side-effect of
> > > > making sure the ALTER SYSTEM KILL SESSION command has immediate affect.
> > > > Without this setting, I've seen some instances where the session reports
> > > > as being KILLED in V$SESSION but is not physically removed until the
> > > > instance is bounced. Does anyone remember this value offhand?
> > >
> > > I would like to know this if true. It's my understanding that the
> > > alter system kill command tells SMON to kill things, which SMON may or
> > > may not do depending on it's mood. For example, I'm having issues
> > > with an imp hanging, and alter session kill has no effect, since imp
> > > is off spinning the cpu and ignoring the database entirely. So I have
> > > the long-time habit of killing processes with the OS and letting PMON
> > > clean up.
> > >
> > > jg
> > > --
> > > _at_home.com is bogus.
> > > If a tree falls in the forrest and no one is around, does it make a
> > > sound? No, but all the squirrels screeming "EEEEEEEH!" do.
> >
> > Source: Oracle9i SQL Reference / Release 2 (9.2) / Part Number A96540-02
> > http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B10501_01/server.920/a96540/statements_23a.htm#2065113
> >
> > KILL SESSION Clause
> >
> > The KILL SESSION clause lets you mark a session as terminated, roll back ongoing transactions,
> > release all session locks, and partially recover session resources. To use this clause, your
> > instance must have the database open, and your session and the session to be killed must be on
> > the same instance. You must identify the session with both of the following values from the
> > V$SESSION view:
> >
> > For integer1, specify the value of the SID column.
> > For integer2, specify the value of the SERIAL# column.
> >
> > If the session is performing some activity that must be completed, such as waiting for a reply
> > from a remote database or rolling back a transaction, then Oracle waits for this activity to
> > complete, marks the session as terminated, and then returns control to you. If the waiting lasts
> > a minute, then Oracle marks the session to be killed and returns control to you with a message
> > that the session is marked to be killed. The PMON background process then marks the session as
> > terminated when the activity is complete.
> >
> > Whether or not the session has an ongoing transaction, Oracle does not recover the entire
> > session state until the session user issues a request to the session and receives a message that
> > the session has been killed.
> >
> > But most imporantly ... the following paragraph:
> >
> > IMMEDIATE
> >
> > Specify IMMEDIATE to instruct Oracle to roll back ongoing transactions, release all session
> > locks, recover the entire session state, and return control to you immediately.

>

>

>

I have yet to see kill -9 not kill a process.

Looking at v_$session is not a reliable indication of whether a session has been killed.

--
Daniel Morgan
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/extinfo/certprog/oad/oad_crs.asp
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with a 'u' to reply)