Tracking the order of execution of sql scripts in SQL*Plus

Question

In our production environment we sometimes have to run some .sql scripts in a particular order. Since the order of execution is important , i have created another .sql file caller caller.sql(shown at the bottom) which will call all the scripts in the right order.
i thought of putting a exec DBMS_LOCK.SLEEP (5); after the end of every execution of the script so that i can see the
'Ending script1'message .
The spooling within the caller script(execute_stack.log) has become meaningless because each script has a spool <filename.log> and spool off within it. These spool logs (for every script) is important for tracking purposes as each script belongs to a different development team and i have to send them the spooled log file after the execution.
I don't want to see the entire scripts running by in my screen. Since these scripts have their own spooling, i can later check the logs if the scripts where executed properly.
So i need two things.
1.I just need to see the following and nothing else in the screen.
Ending script1
Ending script2
Ending script3
.2. I need to log the order of execution. ie. the execute_stack.log should look like the above.Since there is a spool off within each script, this wouldn't be possible.Right?
Ending script1
Ending script2
Ending script3
.The caller.sql script which calls all the scripts in the right order
alter session set nls_date_format = 'DD-MON-YYYY hh24:MI:SS';
set serveroutput on
set echo on;
set feedback on;
spool execute_stack.log
@script1.sql
exec dbms_output.put_line ('Ending script1');
dbms_output.put_line(chr(10)||chr(10)||'.'||chr(10)||'.'||chr(10));
exec DBMS_LOCK.SLEEP (5);
@script2.sql
exec dbms_output.put_line ('Ending script2');
dbms_output.put_line(chr(10)||chr(10)||'.'||chr(10)||'.'||chr(10));
exec DBMS_LOCK.SLEEP (5);
@script3.sql
exec dbms_output.put_line ('Ending script3');
dbms_output.put_line(chr(10)||chr(10)||'.'||chr(10)||'.'||chr(10));
exec DBMS_LOCK.SLEEP (5);
@script4.sql
dbms_output.put_line(chr(10)||chr(10)||'.'||chr(10)||'.'||chr(10));
exec dbms_output.put_line ('Ending script3');
commit;
spool off;Is this a professional way of tracking the execution of .sql scripts?

Answer 1

Pete_Sg1 wrote:
Is this a professional way of tracking the execution of .sql scripts?No. There is very little professional about using .sql scripts on a production system - when stored procedures are safer, more robust, easier managed and controlled and secure.. and where a log table can be used to properly log the runtimes (and other stats) of each processing step.
Let's just take a look at the number of moving parts you need to schedule and run a .sql script. A cron job needs to be configured with the proper environment setting. It needs to run a shell script. That shell script needs to load SQL*Plus. SQL*Plus needs to connect to the database (starting a dedicated server process most likely). SQL*Plus then needs to read a .sql file, parse these commands and either execute these locally (SQL*Plus commands) or remotely (PL/SQL and SQL commands).
How can this be considered professional when the very same can be achieved with a
- stored procedure
- using DBMS_JOB to schedule the procedure for execution
There are so many things that can go wrong with the first method. And so few things that could go wrong with the last one. No contest as to which method is not only better, but also professional.
PS. See that you use Windows to run these scripts. It is even worse as it introduces another hardware and software layer making the scenario even more insecure & unsafe with more moving parts that can go wrong or simply fail.