Catching oracle exception in shell script

Question

Hi,
I'm trying to catch an oracle exception in a shell script. Below is my shell script -
#!/bin/sh
var=115326311
logfile=shell_log.txt
sqlplus -s  mbl/sop01  <<EOF
WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT SQL.SQLCODE;
@plsql.sql $var;
EOF
return_type=$?
if [ $return_type != 0 ]
then
echo 'Error with code';
echo "$return_type";
exit 0;
fi
and this is the sql script -
set serveroutput on;
DECLARE
--set serveroutput on;
--v_company_id NUMBER := 'company_id';
v_name VARCHAR2(100);
BEGIN
--set serveroutput on;
dbms_output.ENABLE();
SELECT ename INTO v_name FROM emp WHERE emp_ID = &1;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Inside SQL File'||' || '|| v_name);
END;
exit
I'm basically passing an employee number that does not exist and hence the sql file would throw and no_data_found exception, which i'm trying to catch in the shell script. When I try to execute the shell script I get the below error --
DECLARE
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01403: no data found
ORA-06512: at line 8
Error with code
123
he sql file is aborting and the error there is just thrown to the command line, which I don't want. I want it to be captured in the shell script and perform my own logic. Also, it says the error code is 123 - I'm not sure from where this is being picked up, shouldn't it actually be the ORA-1403 code ?

Answer 1

Hello,
1403 is out of range for the return value, see https://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:1342602684748
We can raise errors in a given range but the shell will only keep an
unsigned byte in the status return value (values 0..255).  It takes our exit file and
just looks at that last byte.
It also shows how to get around this limitation.
Regards
Marcus