Oracle Call Interface Getting Started
Release 8.1.5 for Windows NT
A68802-01

Preface

This guide is a supplement to the Programmer's Guide to the Oracle Call Interface Vols I & II and provides information for the Oracle Call Interface on the Windows NT and Windows 95/98 operating systems.

Specific topics discussed in this preface are:

Prerequisites
Intended Audience
How This Guide Is Organized
Conventions
Documentation Library

Prerequisites

This guide assumes that you are familiar with:

Compiling and linking a C program
Windows NT and Windows 95/98 operating systems

Intended Audience

This guide is necessary for anyone who wants to use the Oracle Call Interface on the Windows NT and Windows 95/98 operating systems.

How This Guide Is Organized

This guide is organized as follows:

Chapter 1, "Introducing the Oracle Call Interface"

Provides introductory information to help you get started with the Oracle Call Interface.

Chapter 2, "Building OCI Applications"

Provides an overview of how to build Oracle database applications using Oracle Call Interface.

Conventions

The following conventions are used in this guide.

Convention

Example

Meaning

All uppercase plain

C:\ORACLE\ORA81

Indicates command names, SQL reserved words, and keywords, as in ALTER DATABASE. All uppercase plain is also used for directory names and file names.

Italic

Italic is used to indicate a variable:

filename

Italic is used for emphasis:

The WHERE clause may be used to join rows in different tables.

Indicates a value that you must provide. For example, if a command asks you to type filename, you must type the actual name of the file.
Italic is also used for emphasis in the text and to indicate the titles of other guides.

Square brackets [ ]

X:\[PATHNAME]\ORACLE\
HOME_NAME

Encloses optional items. For example, when you create an OFA-compliant Oracle home directory, you can place an optional pathname before the \ORACLE pathname.
Square brackets also indicate a function key, for example [Enter].

Choose Start >

Choose Start > Programs > Oracle - HOME_NAME > Network Administration > Net8 Easy Config

How to start a program. For example, to start Net8 Easy Config, you must click the Start button on the taskbar and then choose Programs, Oracle - HOME_NAME > Network Administration > Net8 Easy Config.

C:\>

C:\ORACLE\ORADATA>

Represents the Windows NT command prompt of the current hard disk drive. Your prompt reflects the subdirectory in which you are working. Referred to as the MS-DOS command prompt in this guide.

Backslash (\) before a directory name

\ORADATA

Indicates that the directory is a subdirectory of the root directory.

ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_BASE

Go to the ORACLE_HOME\ADMIN directory

In previous Oracle8 Enterprise Edition releases, all subdirectories were located under a top level ORACLE_HOME directory, that by default was:

C:\ORANT for Windows NT

C:\ORAWIN95 for Windows 95

C:\ORAWIN for Windows 3.1

or whatever you may have called your Oracle home.
In this Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA)-compliant release, all subdirectories are no longer under a top level ORACLE_HOME directory. There is now a new top level directory called ORACLE_BASE that by default is C:\ORACLE. If you install Oracle8 Enterprise Edition on a clean computer (that is, there is no other Oracle software on the computer), the default setting for the first Oracle home directory is C:\ORACLE\ORA81. If you run Oracle Universal Installer again and install release 8.2.x, the second Oracle home directory is called \ORA82. These Oracle home directories are located directly under ORACLE_BASE.

%ORACLE_HOME%

SVRMGR> @%ORACLE_HOME%\ADMIN\DB_NAME\ADHOC\CATALOG.SQL

In Server Manager commands, you may see %ORACLE_HOME%. Server Manager is able to locate your Oracle Home directory using the %ORACLE_HOME% variable. This convention can be used in Server Manager, SQL*Plus, Export Utility, and Import Utility.

HOMEID

HOME0, HOME1, HOME2

Represents a unique registry subkey for each Oracle home directory in which you install products. A new HOMEID is created and incremented each time you install products to a different Oracle home directory on one computer. Each HOMEID contains its own configuration parameter settings for installed Oracle products.

Symbols

period .
comma ,
hyphen -
semicolon ;
colon :
equal sign =
backslash \
single quote `
double quote '
parentheses ()

Symbols other than brackets and vertical bars must be entered in commands exactly as shown.

Convention	Example	Meaning
All uppercase plain	C:\ORACLE\ORA81	Indicates command names, SQL reserved words, and keywords, as in ALTER DATABASE. All uppercase plain is also used for directory names and file names.
Italic	Italic is used to indicate a variable: filename Italic is used for emphasis: The WHERE clause may be used to join rows in different tables.	Indicates a value that you must provide. For example, if a command asks you to type filename, you must type the actual name of the file. Italic is also used for emphasis in the text and to indicate the titles of other guides.
Square brackets [ ]	X:\[PATHNAME]\ORACLE\ HOME_NAME	Encloses optional items. For example, when you create an OFA-compliant Oracle home directory, you can place an optional pathname before the \ORACLE pathname. Square brackets also indicate a function key, for example [Enter].
Choose Start >	Choose Start > Programs > Oracle - HOME_NAME > Network Administration > Net8 Easy Config	How to start a program. For example, to start Net8 Easy Config, you must click the Start button on the taskbar and then choose Programs, Oracle - HOME_NAME > Network Administration > Net8 Easy Config.
C:\>	C:\ORACLE\ORADATA>	Represents the Windows NT command prompt of the current hard disk drive. Your prompt reflects the subdirectory in which you are working. Referred to as the MS-DOS command prompt in this guide.
Backslash (\) before a directory name	\ORADATA	Indicates that the directory is a subdirectory of the root directory.
ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_BASE	Go to the ORACLE_HOME\ADMIN directory	In previous Oracle8 Enterprise Edition releases, all subdirectories were located under a top level ORACLE_HOME directory, that by default was: C:\ORANT for Windows NT C:\ORAWIN95 for Windows 95 C:\ORAWIN for Windows 3.1 or whatever you may have called your Oracle home. In this Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA)-compliant release, all subdirectories are no longer under a top level ORACLE_HOME directory. There is now a new top level directory called ORACLE_BASE that by default is C:\ORACLE. If you install Oracle8 Enterprise Edition on a clean computer (that is, there is no other Oracle software on the computer), the default setting for the first Oracle home directory is C:\ORACLE\ORA81. If you run Oracle Universal Installer again and install release 8.2.x, the second Oracle home directory is called \ORA82. These Oracle home directories are located directly under ORACLE_BASE.
%ORACLE_HOME%	`SVRMGR> @%ORACLE_HOME%\ADMIN\`DB_NAME`\ADHOC\CATALOG.SQL`	In Server Manager commands, you may see %ORACLE_HOME%. Server Manager is able to locate your Oracle Home directory using the %ORACLE_HOME% variable. This convention can be used in Server Manager, SQL*Plus, Export Utility, and Import Utility.
HOMEID	HOME0, HOME1, HOME2	Represents a unique registry subkey for each Oracle home directory in which you install products. A new HOMEID is created and incremented each time you install products to a different Oracle home directory on one computer. Each HOMEID contains its own configuration parameter settings for installed Oracle products.
Symbols	period . comma , hyphen - semicolon ; colon : equal sign = backslash \ single quote ` double quote ' parentheses ()	Symbols other than brackets and vertical bars must be entered in commands exactly as shown.

Documentation Library

This guide is part of a larger library of Oracle documentation. The Oracle documentation library consists of two types of documentation:

Documentation Type

Describes...

Operating System-specific

Installation, configuration, and use of Oracle products in a for Windows NT and Windows 95/98 environment. Operating system-specific documents are occasionally referred to in the generic documentation set. These documents are easy to identify because they always mention their specific operating system in their title.

Generic

Oracle database, Oracle networking, and Application Programming Interfaces information that is uniform across all operating system platforms. The majority of documents in your documentation set belong to this category. While reading through the generic documentation set, you are occasionally asked to refer to your platform (or operating system) documentation for procedures specific to the for Windows NT and Windows 95/98 operating systems.
To easily identify where these generic documentation references are described in your operating system documentation, see the index of this guide for the following entry:
generic documentation references
All generic documentation references described in this guide appear under this index entry.

Documentation Type	Describes...
Operating System-specific	Installation, configuration, and use of Oracle products in a for Windows NT and Windows 95/98 environment. Operating system-specific documents are occasionally referred to in the generic documentation set. These documents are easy to identify because they always mention their specific operating system in their title.
Generic	Oracle database, Oracle networking, and Application Programming Interfaces information that is uniform across all operating system platforms. The majority of documents in your documentation set belong to this category. While reading through the generic documentation set, you are occasionally asked to refer to your platform (or operating system) documentation for procedures specific to the for Windows NT and Windows 95/98 operating systems. To easily identify where these generic documentation references are described in your operating system documentation, see the index of this guide for the following entry: generic documentation references All generic documentation references described in this guide appear under this index entry.