Dbms_scheduler - ORA-27301: system cannot find the file specified

Question

Hi,
I'm having problems running an executable job via dbms_scheduler. The invoking code reads:
begin
   dbms_scheduler.create_job(job_name   => "fred",
                             job_type   => "EXECUTABLE",
                             job_action => 'convert c:\wowtemp\test.jpg -thumbnail 155 c:\wowtemp\test.png',
                             enabled    => TRUE
   dbms_scheduler.run_job(job_name   => "fred");
end;and running this in SQL*plus gives me:
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-27370: job slave failed to launch a job of type EXECUTABLE
ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:accessing execution agent failed with status: 2
ORA-27301: OS failure message: The system cannot find the file specified.
ORA-27302: failure occurred at: sjsec 6a
ORA-27303: additional information: The system cannot find the file specified.
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_ISCHED", line 150
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_SCHEDULER", line 441
ORA-06512: at line 7This happens no matter what I put in the job_action, and despite the fact that if I paste the jpb_action into a command prompt window it executes successfully. The user has CREATE ANY JOB privilege.
Any ideas?
BTW, this is using XE on WinXP. (I'd post in the XP forum but it seems to have disappeared).
Thanks,
john

Answer 1

OK, problem #1 solved:
By default, XE on Windows sets up the scheduler service to disabled. Enable and start it, then we can move on to problem #2:
ORA-27369: job of type EXECUTABLE failed with exit code: Incorrect function.
See http://www.adp-gmbh.ch/blog/2005/may/27.html for a workaround using a .bat file which sadly doesn't help me. How do I pass runtime switches and parameters?
DBMS_SCHEDULER is wonderfully powerful, but NOWHERE in the copious documentation can I find help on how to do something really SIMPLE.
I just want to run an unscheduled, ad hoc executable job which runs an OS command with parameters, as in:
'c:\mydir\convert.exe c:\mydir\test.jpg -thumbnail 155 c:\mydir\test.png'
Can the job_action parameter include command-line switches and parameters or not?
In the documentation for CREATE_JOB, 'For an executable, the action is the name of the external executable, including the full path name and any command-line arguments.', but this doesn't work for me.
Elsewhere (Error running executable job I read:
If the job_type is executable then the scheduler expects only the executable name and path as job_action (no command line arguments) e.g. ("c:\win32\cmd.exe")
For commandline arguments you should be setting number_of_arguments to the required value and then doing set_job_argument_value for each argument. (e.g. 3, "/q", "/c", "script.bat").
What's the real story?
Any and all assistance much appreciated
Thanks