Call OS Command from Database

Question

How Can I call a OS Command from database stored procedure. From Developer I use host command.
Thanks

Answer 1

You can use java stored procedures for this purpose if you are using Oracle8i.
Here is some sample code for doing this.
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
public class ExecDemo {
static public String[] runCommand(String cmd)
throws IOException {
// set up list to capture command output lines
ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
// start command running
Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);
// get command's output stream and
// put a buffered reader input stream on it
InputStream istr = proc.getInputStream();
BufferedReader br =
new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(istr));
// read output lines from command
String str;
while ((str = br.readLine()) != null)
list.add(str);
// wait for command to terminate
try {
proc.waitFor();
catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.err.println("process was interrupted");
// check its exit value
if (proc.exitValue() != 0)
System.err.println("exit value was non-zero");
// close stream
br.close();
// return list of strings to caller
return (String[])list.toArray(new String[0]);
public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException {
try {
// run a command
String outlist[] = runCommand("/bin/ls -l");
//String outlist[] = runCommand("/u02/home/usupport/ashehade/java/test");
// uncomment this line an comment above if you want to execut
// a c executable called test.
// display its output
for (int i = 0; i < outlist.length; i++)
System.out.println(outlist);
catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println(e);
Load this to the datbase
loadjav -u scott/tiger ExecDemo.java
Publish the proceduer
create or replace procedure lsfromjava as
language java name 'ExecDemo.main(java.lang.String[])';
Test it
SQL> set serverout on
SQL call dbms_java.set_output(2000);
SQL> execute lsfromjava
total 1770
-rw-r--r-- 1 usupport udba 8385 Aug 27 1999 init.ora
-rwxr-xr-x 1 usupport udba 1724 Mar 14 05:46 initCONV.ora
lrwxrwxrwx 1 usupport udba 45 Mar 10 11:01 initMWS2.ora ->
/u03/app/oracle/admin/MWS2/pfile/initMWS2.ora
lrwxrwxrwx 1 usupport udba 59 Jan 11 16:09 initV816.ora ->
/u02/app/oracle/product/8.1.6/admin/V816/pfile/initV816.ora
-rw-r--r-- 1 usupport udba 9219 Aug 27 1999 initdw.ora
lrwxrwxrwx 1 usupport udba 59 Feb 14 11:55 initreid.ora ->
/u02/app/oracle/product/8.1.6/admin/reid/pfile/initreid.ora
-rw-r--r-- 1 usupport udba 835 Nov 3 17:07 initsoxx.sql
-rw-rw---- 1 usupport udba 24 Mar 13 10:22 lkBLEVE
-rw-rw---- 1 usupport udba 24 Mar 14 05:46 lkCONV
-rw-rw---- 1 usupport udba 24 Mar 13 04:48 lkMWS2
If you are using Oracle 8.0.5 , then you can use external procedures for this.
There was one article in the Oracle Magazine for doing this with external procedures. You can search the archives for this purpose.