How to share data in "User_*" tables with another schema

Question

I would like to share the data in the USER_SEGMENTS table with another schema. If I create a view and grant select on the view, when the other schema queries the view the data is identical to themselves querying the SYS.user_segments table directly.
create view sys_user_segments as select * from sys.user_segments;
grant select on sys_user_segments to A;My guess is that the SYS.user_segments table is a view based on the current user.
Is there a way to share this data without creating a copy of the table?
Oracle: 10g
Thanks

Answer 1

Hi,
All the data dictionary "tables" whose names start with user_ (or all_ or dba_) are actually views, and what results they bring back depend on what schema you logged in to. I don't think there's any way to allow user A to directly see what's in user B's version of user_segments.
Why do you need this? Can you use the all_ views instead, by giving A some privileges on B's objects?
Failing that, you can replicate the data into a regular table. Inside a AUTHID DEFINER stored procedure, the data dictionary views (such as user_segments) are the versions of the procedure owner, so B can write a stored procedure (let's call it populate_my_segments) that populates a regular table (let's call it my_segements), and then grant EXECUTE privilges on populat_my_segments and SELECT privileges on my_segements to user A. A can then refresh the table and look at it whenever he wants to.
If A only needs to see a little information, e.g. the total number of bytes, from B's user_segments, then B can write a function just to return that information.