Count files in a dirctory using plsql

Question

Hi ,
Currently i am using a shell script that counts the number of files in unix level directory that had xml files and load to the table as CLOB using the sql loader.
Now i want to use plsql l to count files and then load using insert the script.I am able to use insert statement but not have any idea to count files at unix level using plsql.
Please give me some ideas.
Thanks in Advance.
Rede

Answer 1

Neither does anyone else... <<LOL
I've found this one quite some time ago...
-- How to get a listing of files in a directory using PL/SQL has got to be one of the most
-- popular questions asked by Oracle developers. Prior to 10g, DIY solutions included the
-- sophisticated, using either Java (8i onwards) or External Procedures (8 onwards),
-- or the clunky (pipe servers and shell scripts from 7 onwards)
-- However in 10g there is a new procedure hidden away in the undocumented
-- DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE package. It's called searchfiles, which is a bit of a giveaway
-- and appears to have been introduced for the new backup features in 10g, as RMAN
-- now needs to know about files in the recovery destination.
-- Calling this procedure populates an in memory table called X$KRBMSFT, which
-- is one of those magic X$ tables, the only column which is of relevance to us
-- is FNAME_KRBMSFT which is the fully qualified path and file name.
-- This X$ table acts in a similar fashion to a global temporary table in that it's contents
-- can only be seen from the calling session. So two sessions can call searchfiles and each
-- can only see the results of their call (which is extremely useful).
-- The code sample below will only really run as SYS, due to the select from X$KRBMSFT, it's
-- just intended as a demo. The first two parameters in the call to searchfiles are
-- IN OUT so must be defined as variables, even though the second parameter is of no consequence
-- to us and should be left as NULL. Even though they are IN OUT, testing shows they don't
-- appear to change.
-- Updated 29/05/2007
-- The first parameter is the string to search for, in much the same format as you would pass
-- in a call to dir (Windows) or ls (Unix). However, on some platforms and versions
-- passing in a wildcard or anything other than a directory name will result in an empty X$KRBMSFT.
-- The trick here is to simply pass a valid OS directory name - the entire listing of that directories
-- contents will now appear in X$KRBMSFT, which can then be filtered using LIKE.
-- This procedure appears to raise no exceptions, passing an invalid search string, such
-- as a non-existant path or one with no permissions, simply results in an empty X$KRBMSFT.
-- However, if the database parameter db_recovery_file_dest is not set, you will get ORA-19801.
-- Interestingly, this procedure recursively searches sub directories found in the search string.
-- So passing a string of 'C:\windows' (for example) populates X$KRBMSFT with not only the files found
-- in that directory but all the files found in all directories beneath, such as C:\windows\system32.
-- As X$KRBMSFT is an in memory table, you have been warned! Calling this procedure on a directory
-- with thousands of sub directories and files has the potential to blow out memory
-- The way forward is to wrap this functionality in a package, perhaps using
-- directory objects instead and checking access priviliges, creating a view based on X$KRBMSFT,
-- maybe even allowing/disallowing subdirectory traversal and limiting memory usage search size.
-- I see another project coming, stay tuned for XUTL_FINDFILES!
-- This code has been tested and works as intended on Oracle 10104 EE.
-- Get this tip and others, along with useful PL/SQL utilities at
-- www.chrispoole.co.uk
DECLARE
pattern VARCHAR2(1024) := '/u01/oracle/admin/SID/udump';
ns VARCHAR2(1024);
BEGIN
SYS.DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE.searchFiles(pattern, ns);
FOR each_file IN (SELECT FNAME_KRBMSFT AS name FROM X$KRBMSFT WHERE FNAME_KRBMSFT LIKE '%.trc') LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(each_file.name);
END LOOP;
END;
DECLARE
pattern VARCHAR2(1024) := 'C:\temp\*';
ns VARCHAR2(1024);
BEGIN
SYS.DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE.searchFiles(pattern, ns);
FOR each_file IN (SELECT FNAME_KRBMSFT AS name FROM X$KRBMSFT) LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(each_file.name);
END LOOP;
END;
/Thomas