PL/SQL call .exe program?

[Jimmy]

Hello all,
Is it possible to call a .exe program within Oracle PL/SQL? The .exe
program is in VB or C program. And how to communicate with the .exe
program with the parameters (both IN/OUT)?

Thanks,
Jimmy

[Hans Berger]

Jimmy schrieb in Nachricht <36E623...@comp.polyu.edu.hk>...

You can only Call a external Procedure oder Function from a Dynamic Link
Library DLL.
This DLL can have modal Forms, so than a .exe-Program

Bye
Hans

[Christopher M. Day]

Jimmy,

This is possible with V7 using DBMS_PIPE and with V8 using EXTPROC.

Chris.

[Mladen Gogala]

In article <36E623...@comp.polyu.edu.hk>,

Jimmy <c663...@comp.polyu.edu.hk> wrote:
> Hello all,
> Is it possible to call a .exe program within Oracle PL/SQL? The .exe
> program is in VB or C program. And how to communicate with the .exe
> program with the parameters (both IN/OUT)?
>
> Thanks,
> Jimmy
>

No, Oracle cannot call EXE executables, it can call routines written in C
(not C++ - name mangling!!!!) from a DLL. Oracle can call EXE files - on
OpenVMS, though.
Mladen Gogala

-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
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[Wicksey]

Is it not possible to call the exe file using the host statement, and pass
the input values in as parameters of the call? I'm not sure I know exactly
what you want to do. If the program is already in C, then precompile it in
Pro*C to a dll and call the functions using ORA_FFI.

HTH

Wicksey
Jimmy <c663...@comp.polyu.edu.hk> wrote in article
<36E623...@comp.polyu.edu.hk>...

[Arnold Schommer]

Mladen Gogala wrote:
>
> In article <36E623...@comp.polyu.edu.hk>,
> Jimmy <c663...@comp.polyu.edu.hk> wrote:

> > Hello all,
> > Is it possible to call a .exe program within Oracle PL/SQL? The .exe
> > program is in VB or C program. And how to communicate with the .exe
> > program with the parameters (both IN/OUT)?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Jimmy
> >

> No, Oracle cannot call EXE executables, it can call routines written in C
> (not C++ - name mangling!!!!) from a DLL. Oracle can call EXE files - on
> OpenVMS, though.
> Mladen Gogala
>
> -----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
> http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own

As far as i know, this is wrong: using the built-in host() you may call
any program. The communication is not directly supported, but should be
at least possible somehow using files.

hope it helps

Arnold Schommer

[Mladen Gogala]

In article <36E7F265...@fs-edv.de>,

The 'host' function is implemented in sqlplus, not in PL/SQL. You cannot
write something like:

create or replace procedure(mydrive in varchar2) as
begin
host('format '||'mydrive');
end;

because PL/SQL will give you an error, saying that procedure HOST should
be declared. The only way to do that is to write it in C and link to
oracle via external prodedures interface.

[Manmohan Mann]

Hi,

In the environment that our system is in (Oracle 7.1.6, Forms 3.0 on
VM/CMS), we use the host command frequently inside Forms to call
external programs. I am relatively new to this environment, so I am not
sure how it happens, but I do know that "parameters" are passed using
files.

Can somebody explain. Has to do with the fact that these aren't stored
procedures (in the database)?

Thanks,

[Marcus N Hofer]

Manmohan Mann schrieb in Nachricht <36EB2A93...@hotmail.com>...

>Hi,
>
>In the environment that our system is in (Oracle 7.1.6, Forms 3.0 on
>VM/CMS), we use the host command frequently inside Forms to call
>external programs. I am relatively new to this environment, so I am not
>sure how it happens, but I do know that "parameters" are passed using
>files.
>
>Can somebody explain. Has to do with the fact that these aren't stored
>procedures (in the database)?

Yes.
PL/SQL is the procedural programming environment of the database server.
forms and SQL PLus both are client tools, where You have a 'host' built in
to call apps on Your clients, with no parameters passed back. if You want to
call externals from PL/SQL You have to use 'EXTERNAL_PROCEDURE' and
dlls as mladen described.

regards,
--marcus