How to get a directory listing in XE?

Question

So how would you best get a directory listing?
There was a lovely thread about using dbms_scheduler to make external calls:
Re: External procedure calls supported?
Which discussed how to run an external prcoedure. So using that technique would an approach be:
create procedure get_dir(p_dir varchar2)
--get sequence for directory call
--call 'synronous dbms_scheduler that executes "ls -l > /tmp/listing[sequence]
--create external table temp_dir_[sequence]
--load it into a global temp table ala ASKTOM http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:439619916584
--drop the external table
Someone on Asktom said they were going to do it via dbms_pipe but was not forthcoming with an example.
I'm not sure I like creating and dropping an external table every time this procedure is called and I feel I am missing a technique (or a good idea) to make this work effectively.
Kind Regards,
James
Got the link to the 'External procedure calls support' wrong.
Message was edited by: jcrockart

Answer 1

Ok.
Well here is the solution... Can I make it better?
FROM OS (oracle user):
vi ~/get_dir.sh
#!/bin/sh
ls $1 > /tmp/$2
exit 0
##end
FROM SYS:
create directory OS_TMP as '/tmp';
grant read,write on directory OS_TMP to hr;
grant create table to hr;
FROM HR:
create global temporary table DIR_LIST
( filename varchar2(255) )
on commit delete rows
--create the following:
CREATE OR REPLACE procedure get_dir_list (
p_directory     in varchar2
IS
l_jobname VARCHAR2 (100);
BEGIN
     l_jobname := DBMS_SCHEDULER.generate_job_name (prefix => 'get_dir_list');
     dbms_output.put_line(l_jobname);
     --dbms_output.put_line('ls '||p_directory||' > /tmp/blah');
     --creat syncrhous job
     DBMS_SCHEDULER.create_job (
          job_name => l_jobname,
          job_type => 'EXECUTABLE',
          job_action => '/home/oracle/get_dir.sh',
          number_of_arguments => 2,
          enabled => FALSE,
          comments => 'directory listing for '||p_directory);
     DBMS_SCHEDULER.set_job_argument_value (l_jobname, 1, p_directory);
     DBMS_SCHEDULER.set_job_argument_value (l_jobname, 2, l_jobname);
     -- Run job synchronously.
     DBMS_SCHEDULER.run_job (job_name => l_jobname, use_current_session => TRUE);
     -- Remove job after run
     DBMS_SCHEDULER.drop_job (l_jobname);
     --create external table
     execute immediate '
          create table '||l_jobname||'_ext
          file_name               varchar2(1000)
          organization external (
          type          oracle_loader
          default     directory os_tmp
          access parameters (
               records delimited by newline
               fields terminated by '',''
               missing field values are null
               file_name)
          location ('''||l_jobname||''')
          reject limit unlimited';
          execute immediate '
          INSERT INTO DIR_LIST(FILENAME) select file_name from '||l_jobname||'_ext
END;
--test it
exec get_dir_list('/home/oracle')
GET_DIR_LIST14
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
hr>select * from dir_list;
FILENAME
apex
apex_3.0.1.zip
get_dir.sh
go.log
go.txt
test.sh
6 rows selected.
hr>
Apologies for butchering Dietmar Aust dbms_schedule example.
I can't drop the external table as the data in the global temporary table will be lost, so I will have to periodically clean up after this procedure.
Please somebody feel free to give me the one line solution ;-)
Regards,
James