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The Oracle RDBMS produces a significant number of trace and log files, which record current status and other information related to the condition of the database system. Part of the administration of an ORACLE RDBMS is to remove these files from the OS layer once they become obsolete. This article covers the creation of shell script to remove such files from the Oracle database server in a UNIX or LINUX environment.

1. Logon to your Oracle database server as the Oracle software owner.

2. Logon to SQLPLUS with SYSDBA privileges.

mylinux:> sqlplus ‘/ as sysdba’

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.4.0 – Production on Tue Dec 15 18:08:39 2009

Copyright (c) 1982, 2007, Oracle. All Rights Reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 – 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL>

3. Use the SQLPLUS command show to see the location of your
background_dump_dest directory.

SQL> show parameter background_dump_dest

NAME TYPE VALUE
———————————— ———– ——————–
background_dump_dest string /orcl/admin/orcl/bdump
SQL>

4. Exit out of SQLPLUS.

SQL> exit
Disconnected from Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 –
64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options
mylinux:>

5. Change directories to the location of you back

mylinux:> cd /orcl/admin/orcl/bdump
mylinux:>

6. Execute the following statement to see how many trace files exist greater than 3 days old.

find . -name “*trc” -mtime +3 -exec ls -lrt {} \;

mylinux:> find . -name “*trc” -mtime +3 -exec ls -lrt {} \;
…
…
…
-rw-r—– 1 oracle dba 943 Jul 12 13:00
./orcl_m001_11864.trc
-rw-r—– 1 oracle dba 811 Jul 12 23:00
./orcl_m001_17140.trc
-rw-r—– 1 oracle dba 897 Jul 13 13:00
./orcl_m001_7152.trc
-rw-r—– 1 oracle dba 789 Jul 13 23:00
./orcl_m001_29058.trc
mylinux:>

7. Execute the following command to remove all file which are older than 3 days: find . -name “*trc” -mtime +3 -exec rm {} \;

mylinux:> find . -name “*trc” -mtime +3 -exec rm {} \;
mylinux:>

8. This shell command can be placed in an executable shell script and executed through CRON to automatically delete files older then three days. Note: The example below will remove trace files from your current directory ending in trc. You will have to replace the find â€œ.â€ with find â€œdirectory_structureâ€ to remove files in a specific directory.

Example: You wish to remove all files older then 3 days in directory
/opt/oracle/db_1/bdump the command would be.

find /opt/oracle/db_1/bdump -name “*trc” -mtime +3 -exec rm {} \;

Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com

Oracle provides the package UTL_FILE to produce OS layer files from within the Oracle RDBMS. This article will show a basic procedure for the producing an OS layer file from within the Oracle RDBMS.

1. Logon to your Oracle database server as the Oracle software owner.

2. Create a file called create_file.sql with the following SQL.

create or replace procedure test_file
is

v_record varchar2(50) := ‘Testing file creation’;
v_file varchar2(30) := ‘test_file.txt’;
v_dir varchar2(512) := ‘/home/lcatt’;
v_write utl_file.file_type;
begin

v_write:=utl_file.fopen(v_dir, v_file, ‘w’, 2000);

utl_file.put_line(v_write, v_record);

utl_file.fclose(v_write);

end test_file;
/

3. Enter SQL*PLUS, set ECHO and FEEDBACK to on, and execute the file
create_file.sql.

Mylinux:/home/lcatt:>sqlplus ljcatt

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.4.0 – Production on Sat Jan 03 09:43:17 2009

Copyright (c) 1982, 2007, Oracle. All Rights Reserved.

Enter password:

Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 – 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> set feedback on
SQL> set echo on
SQL>@./create_file.sql
SQL> create or replace procedure test_file
2 is
3
4 v_record varchar2(50) := ‘Testing file creation’;
5 v_file varchar2(30) := ‘test_file.txt’;
6 v_dir varchar2(512) := ‘/home/lcatt’;
7 v_write utl_file.file_type;
8 begin
9
10 v_write:=utl_file.fopen(v_dir, v_file, ‘w’, 2000);
11
12 utl_file.put_line(v_write, v_record);
13
14 utl_file.fclose(v_write);
15
16 end test_file;
17 /

Procedure created.

SQL>

4. Ensure that the system initialization parameter for utl_file_dir contains the directory to which utl_file is going to write with the command show utl_file_dir.

SQL> show parameter utl_file_dir

NAME TYPE VALUE
———————————— ———– ——————————
utl_file_dir string

SQL>

5. If it does not contain the directory, as is the case in step 4, logon to your Oracle database as sysdba and add the directory structure and bounce the database, as seen below:

SQL> connect / as sysdba
Connected.
SQL> alter system set utl_file_dir=’/home/lcatt’ scope=spfile;

System altered.

SQL> shutdown immediate
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL> startup
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area 1207959552 bytes
Fixed Size 2068728 bytes
Variable Size 654315272 bytes
Database Buffers 503316480 bytes
Redo Buffers 48259072 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.
SQL> show parameter utl_file_dir

NAME TYPE VALUE
———————————— ———– ——————————

utl_file_dir string /home/lcatt

SQL>

6. Execute the newly create procedure with the SQL*PLUS command; execute test_file

SQL> execute test_file

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL>

7. Exit out of SQL*PLUS and change directory to where you wrote your file.

SQL> exit
Disconnected from Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 –
64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options
Mylinux:/home/lcatt:>cd /home/lcatt
Mylinux:/home/lcatt:>

8. Execute the ls and more command on the file testfile.

Mylinux:/home/lcatt:>ls testfile
testfile
Mylinux:/home/lcatt:>more testfile
Testing file creation
Mylinux:/home/lcatt:>

This completes the creation of external OS layer file from within the Oracle RDBMS.

Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com

Catt Solutions

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Shell script to remove trace or log files from ORACLE environment.

Creating an external file from within the Oracle RDBMS.

Oracle tips and tricks.