ORA-2020 when trying to verify database links

Question

I have a problem with verifying database links. I want to create a procedure for checking all database links. this is done like the following:
declare
xRefCursor sys_refcursor;
cursor cDBLinks is
select db_link
from user_db_links;
nDummy number;
begin
for rL in cDBLinks loop
begin
open xRefCursor for 'select 1 from dual@'||rL.db_link;
fetch xRefCursor into nDummy;
close xRefCursor;
dbms_output.put_line(rL.db_link||' established');
exception
when others then
if xRefCursor%isopen then
close xRefCursor;
end if;
dbms_output.put_line(rL.db_link||' error '||sqlerrm);
end;
end loop;
end;
when running the procedure, I get a ORA-2020 : too many database links in use
Cause: The current session has exceeded the INIT.ORA OPEN_LINKS maximum.
Action: Increase the OPEN_LINKS limit, or free up some open links by committing or rolling back the transaction and canceling open cursors that reference remote databases
exact after the count of database links specified in the OPEN_LINKS parameter. As you can see I don't issue any transaction, and also I close every cursor I open...so there should be just one db link active in time. note that increasing the OPEN_LINKS parameter will not be a good solution, as I can't tell how much links are existing for a user.
any suggestions?
regards
Christian
oh, forgot to mention: tried this with 9.2.0.6 and 10.2.0.3 on WINDOWS (so I believe this also occurs in 9.2.0.6 <= DBVersion <= 10.2.0.3)
Message was edited by:
W1zard

Answer 1

As you can see I don't issue any transaction, and also I close every cursor I
open...so there should be just one db link active in time.This is wrong assumption. The closing of the cursor does not mean DB link will be closed too. You have to close database link explicitly.
See:
Managing Database Link
Rgds.