Using dbms_metadata to get ddl for creating directories

Question

Hi,
I am working on creating a test database, which is a copy of production for 11g upgrade testing. I want to get all the ddls from my production databse to create all the directories in the new test database. I have been trying to use dbms_metadata for this -
Below is the code that I have been trying to use. However, when I query the my_metadata table, there is nothing in there. Can someone please help me with this?
DROP TABLE my_metadata;
CREATE TABLE my_metadata(md CLOB);
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE progp1_directories_extract
AS
hndl NUMBER; --dbms_metadata handle
th NUMBER; --transform handle
DDL CLOB; --individual clobs extracted from the database
BEGIN
hndl := DBMS_METADATA.OPEN ('DATABASE_EXPORT'); --Open the metadata
DBMS_METADATA.set_filter (hndl, 'INCLUDE_PATH_EXPR', '=''DIRECTORY'''); --Filter data as appropriate
th := DBMS_METADATA.add_transform (hndl, 'DDL'); --Get the Transform Handle
DBMS_METADATA.set_transform_param (th, 'SQLTERMINATOR', TRUE); --Include the semicolon
LOOP
DDL := DBMS_METADATA.fetch_clob (hndl); --Loop through the result set, inserting into our temp table
EXIT WHEN DDL IS NULL;
INSERT INTO my_metadata
(md)
VALUES (DDL);
COMMIT;
END LOOP;
DBMS_METADATA.CLOSE (hndl);
EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS
THEN
NULL;
END;
show errors

Answer 1

user12158503 wrote:
Below is the code that I have been trying to use. However, when I query the my_metadata table, there is nothing in there. Can someone please help me with this?
DROP TABLE my_metadata;
CREATE TABLE my_metadata(md CLOB);
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE progp1_directories_extract
AS
hndl   NUMBER; --dbms_metadata handle
th     NUMBER; --transform handle
DDL    CLOB;   --individual clobs extracted from the database
BEGIN
hndl := DBMS_METADATA.OPEN ('DATABASE_EXPORT'); --Open the metadata
DBMS_METADATA.set_filter (hndl, 'INCLUDE_PATH_EXPR', '=''DIRECTORY'''); --Filter data as appropriate
th := DBMS_METADATA.add_transform (hndl, 'DDL'); --Get the Transform Handle
DBMS_METADATA.set_transform_param (th, 'SQLTERMINATOR', TRUE); --Include the semicolon
LOOP
DDL := DBMS_METADATA.fetch_clob (hndl); --Loop through the result set, inserting into our temp table
EXIT WHEN DDL IS NULL;
INSERT INTO my_metadata
(md)
VALUES (DDL);
COMMIT;
END LOOP;
DBMS_METADATA.CLOSE (hndl);
EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS
THEN
NULL;
END;
show errors
I can't see the bit where you actually try to execute the procedure - I assume you are doing this.
One killer feature of your code is the "when others then null" - you're not going to know where and why your code failed.
Taking a guess: are you running this as SYS ? If not then it's possible that you're not finding any data because of some feature in the way that the code sees the directory objects - they're always owned by SYS.
Although your code (when corrected) will generate the grants on the directories, the following is sufficient to generate the "create directory" statements. (Since all directories are owned by SYS it's actually an error to reference an owner in this query -- that means, by the way, that the answer you've marked as correct doesn't actually work).
select
     dbms_metadata.get_ddl('DIRECTORY',directory_name)
from
     dba_directories
;Regards
Jonathan Lewis
http://jonathanlewis.wordpress.com
http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk
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