A package is considered invalid from another package when it isn't

Question

Hi all,
I have two packages, A and B. I have unit test for both packages. B uses some procedures from A. After they are compiled (A first, then B), when I run the unit test for B in sqlplus, I get
ORA-04068: existing state of packages has been discarded
ORA-04065: not executed, altered or dropped stored procedure "my_schema.A"
ORA-06508: PL/SQL: could not find program unit being called
ORA-06512: at "my_schema.B", line 886
ORA-06512: at line 6
But if I run the unit test for A, it works perfectly (so I think A has been compiled correctly and could be found in the database).
For those who have read my post yesterday titled 'existing state of packages has been discarded', this is the same problem. Sorry for posting twice but I really need to get this working.
Thanks.
Gloria Chung

Answer 1

This shouldn't be a problem if you are running the unit tests in the same session as you are recompiling the packages.
Basically, package A must be storing values in package level variables. Like this...
SQL1> CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE ap AS
2 FUNCTION f RETURN number;
3 END;
4 /
Package created.
SQL1> CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY ap AS
2 FUNCTION f RETURN number IS
3 BEGIN
4 RETURN 2;
5 END;
6 END;
7 /
Package body created.
SQL1> CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE bp AS
2 FUNCTION f RETURN NUMBER;
3 END;
4 /
Package created.
SQL1> CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY bp AS
2 n NUMBER;
3 FUNCTION f RETURN NUMBER IS
4 BEGIN
5 n := n + ap.f;
6 RETURN n;
7 END;
8 BEGIN
9 n := 0;
10 END;
11 /
Package body created.
SQL1>
Now we can use that in another session...
SQL2> var x number
SQL2> exec :x := bp.f
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL2> print x
         X
         2
SQL2>So far so good. Now in the first session we run ...
SQL1> CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY bp AS
  2    n NUMBER;
  3    FUNCTION f RETURN NUMBER IS
  4    BEGIN
  5       n := n * ap.f;
  6       RETURN n;
  7    END;
  8  BEGIN
  9      n := 4;
10  END;
11  /
Package body created.
SQL1> back in session two...
SQL2> exec :x := bp.f
BEGIN :x := bp.f; END;
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-04068: existing state of packages has been discarded
ORA-04061: existing state of package body "APC.BP" has been invalidated
ORA-04065: not executed, altered or dropped package body "APC.BP"
ORA-06508: PL/SQL: could not find program unit being called
ORA-06512: at line 1
SQL2>aaargh! disaster! But all we have to do is ...
SQL2> conn apc/apc
Connected.
SQL2> var x number
SQL2> exec :x := bp.f
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL2> print x
         X
         8
SQL2> I'm not saying its satisfactory, because obviously it isn't. But I don't see what else Oracle can do.
Cheers, APC