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  • Debugging Messages 2

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    Ashok Babu
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    The document discusses using Oracle's dbms_pipe package as an alternative to dbms_output for outputting high volumes of debugging messages from PL/SQL procedures. It describes creating a stored procedure that puts messages on the default pipe and a listening program that reads from the pipe and prints messages. Key benefits of this approach are that it works across clients, messages can be viewed in real-time, and it has no size limits like dbms_output.

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    The document discusses using Oracle's dbms_pipe package as an alternative to dbms_output for outputting high volumes of debugging messages from PL/SQL procedures. It describes creating a stored procedure that puts messages on the default pipe and a listening program that reads from the pipe and prints messages. Key benefits of this approach are that it works across clients, messages can be viewed in real-time, and it has no size limits like dbms_output.

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    7 views2 pages

    Debugging Messages 2

    Uploaded by

    Ashok Babu
    The document discusses using Oracle's dbms_pipe package as an alternative to dbms_output for outputting high volumes of debugging messages from PL/SQL procedures. It describes creating a stored procedure that puts messages on the default pipe and a listening program that reads from the pipe and prints messages. Key benefits of this approach are that it works across clients, messages can be viewed in real-time, and it has no size limits like dbms_output.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 2

    How can I get a PL/SQL procedure to output high

    volumes of debugging messages?

    Author's name: Raj Jamadagni Date written: 08/20/2001

    Author's Email: rajendra dot jamadagni at espn Oracle version(s): Oracle 7.3 and
    dot com later
    Whenever I needed some kind of feedback from a plsql procedure, I used to rely on
    dbms_output for displaying messages. This worked fine, until I realised that the
    messages won’t be displayed until after the code is executed completely. So I found
    another solution …

    Back to index of questions

    Oracle supplied package dbms_pipe is of great help, and my solution is based around
    this package. There are two things needed, a stored procedure and a listening program.

    The stored procedure accepts a message string and optionally a pipe name. It simple puts
    the message on the default pipe (unless pipe name is specified explicitly).

    The listening program can be anything that can read an oracle database pipe. This
    program is basically a loop, that sleeps for a while, wakes up, checks the pipe for any
    messages and repeats. If a message is received, it can be processed as per individual
    requirements, I usually print it to stdout. Oracle has provided a skeleton program called
    ‘daemon.c’ that demonstrates a pipe listener.

    I prefer this technique over dbms_output, for the following reasons

    • This works across clients i.e. I can use this procedure to dump messages from my
    Oracle Form, as well as server code. So this gives me a complete picture of execution.
    • The messages put on the pipe can be viewed instantly (actually based on polling
    time specified for the listening daemon), so I can see messages as the execution
    progresses.
    • This doesn't have 1MB limits, that of dbms_output.

    I embedded debugging code in my applications in such a manner that it allows me to turn


    on/off this tracing at runtime without any modifications to my code.

    Note: There is some learning curve involved in this, but here is my experience, it took me
    few hours to experiement and set this up, but in last 3+ years I haven’t touched the code.
    Further reading: Start with ‘$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/dbmspipe.sql’ followed by
    ‘Oracle Application Developers Guide’ for detailed explaination about dbms_pipe
    package. See also the FAQ item: How can I get a PL/SQL procedure to output debugging
    messages ?

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