3
Operating System-Specific References

This chapter provides the operating system-specific information that is referenced in SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference.

Specific topics discussed are:

• Access to Sample Tables
• Automatic Login
• TIMING Command
• Interpreting Error Messages
• Setting Up Your SQL*Plus Environment
• Sending Results to a File
• @, @@, and START Commands
• EXIT Command
• HOST Command
• SET NEWPAGE Command
• PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE Table

 

Access to Sample Tables

See "Access to Sample Tables" in Chapter 1 of SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference which discusses the sample data that you must load onto your database to allow you to complete the exercises.

Note: If you access a database installed on another computer, your database administrator should build these tables for you.

To load the data, start SQL*Plus with the user account that allows you to complete the exercises. SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference refers to the user name SCOTT with the password TIGER, but you can use any account that has these resource privilege.

Enter the following command at the SQL*Plus prompt:

SQL> @ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\DBS\DEMOBLD.SQL

When you finish working through the examples, you can remove the sample data from the database by entering the following command:

SQL> @ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\DBS\DEMODROP.SQL

Automatic Login

See "Shortcuts to Starting SQL*Plus" in Chapter 2 of SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference which refers you to this guide for information about automatically logging on to SQL*Plus when you log on to your operating system.

When connecting to an Oracle database on the same Windows NT or Windows 95/98 computer, you can set up SQL*Plus to do an automatic login by following these steps:

1. Create an account in the database <PREFIX>USERX for every Windows NT or Windows 95/98 user (USERX) who needs access to the database. <PREFIX> is the init.ora parameter OS_AUTHENT_PREFIX for the database (the default is OPS$).
2. After logging on to Windows NT or Windows 95/98 as USERX, you can log in as /.

TIMING Command

See "Collecting Timing Statistics on Commands You Run" in Chapter 2 and the sections "SET" and "TIMING" in Chapter 8 of SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference which discuss how to use the TIMING command and the SET TIMING command to record timing data for an elapsed period.

SQL*Plus displays the accumulated time in milliseconds.

Interpreting Error Messages

See "Interpreting Error Messages" in Chapter 2 of SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference, Oracle8i Error Messages, and this guide to find error codes that begin with the letters ORA.

If you do not find the error code in Oracle8 Error Messages, see Oracle8i Enterprise Edition Getting Started Guide for Windows NT.

Setting Up Your SQL*Plus Environment

See "Setting Up Your SQL*Plus Environment" in Chapter 3 of SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference, which describes the LOGIN.SQL and GLOGIN.SQL files.

When you install SQL*Plus, LOGIN.SQL is copied to the DBS subdirectory of your Oracle home directory.

When you install SQL*Plus, GLOGIN.SQL is copied to the SQLPLUS\ADMIN subdirectory of your Oracle home directory.

If you modify LOGIN.SQL or GLOGIN.SQL, make sure you do not add any ANSI escape sequences.

Some Oracle products use a LOGIN file named LOGIN.NEW. If this file exists on your computer, make sure you do not use it with SQL*Plus.

Sending Results to a File

See "Sending Results to a File" in Chapter 4 of SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference, which describes the SPOOL command.

This command is available from the File menu in the SQL*Plus GUI version. See "File Menu" for more information.

When you use the SPOOL command from the graphical user interface or the command line interface, SQL*Plus adds .LST to the file name if you do not specify an extension.

SQL*Plus does not support the use of the SPOOL OUT clause at the command line.

@, @@, and START Commands

See the sections "@ ("at" sign)," "@@(double "at" sign)," and "START" in Chapter 8 of SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference, which describe how SQL*Plus searches for a file when you use the @, @@, or START command.

SQL*Plus searches the current default directory for the file name that you specify with the @, @@, or START command. If SQL*Plus cannot find this file, the program searches a path to find the file.

You can specify the path that SQL*Plus searches by modifying the SQLPATH parameter in your registry.

EXIT Command

See "EXIT" in Chapter 8 of SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference, which describes how to use the EXIT command to run SQL*Plus command files in batch mode.

SQL*Plus does not support batch mode.

HOST Command

See "HOST" in Chapter 8 of SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference, which describes how to use the HOST command to execute a host operating system command without leaving SQL*Plus.

In SQL*Plus, you can access the MS-DOS command prompt by entering the HOST command or a dollar sign ($) at the SQL*Plus prompt.

To return to SQL*Plus from the MS-DOS command prompt, enter the EXIT command.

SET NEWPAGE Command

See "SET" in Chapter 8 of SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference, which describes how to set the NEWPAGE system variable, as well as many other system variables.

The SET NEWPAGE 0 command does not clear the screen between pages. Instead, a black box appears. This occurs because the text printing APIs do not support the form-feed character "/f" on these platforms.

PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE Table

See "PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE Table" in Appendix E of SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference, which describes the PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE table, which provides product-level security that supplements the user-level security provided by the SQL GRANT and REVOKE commands and user roles.

To create this table, the database administrator must run the PUPBLD.SQL file, which is located in the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\DBS directory.

If you are using SQL*Plus with a remote database, you may want to install the PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE table on the remote database. To do this, run PUPBLD.SQL on the server directly. Or, you can set the LOCAL parameter in your registry to point to the remote database and then run PUPBLD.SQL.