I have a shell script that runs an Oracle Export and compresses the export dump file as it is processing to a pipe.

It runs fine except I tested how it worked when the database is down. The script seemed to work correctly . It identified that the database was down and sent out an email but for some reason the process did not exit out. It is still out there. Eventhough I have a return 1 after the email is sent.

Does anyone know why this is happening. On am on Solaris using KSH. Here is my script:

# variable declaration
. /export/home/oracle/.MYenv


LOGDIR=/xxxx

# log of this script
typeset shlog
shlog=${LOGDIR}/export_full_${ORACLE_SID}.$$.log
touch ${shlog}
print "starting `date` ${0} ${@}" >>${shlog} 2>&1

print "Move old exports to proper directories" >>${shlog} 2>&1

exp_arch[1]=${EXPDIR}

DMPFILE=${EXPDIR}/exp_full_${ORACLE_SID}.`date +"%Y%m%d"`.dmp
LOGFILE=${LOGDIR}/exp_full_${ORACLE_SID}.`date +"%Y%m%d"`.log

# delete old files
rm -f ${EXPDIR}/*pipe*
rm -f ${DMPFILE} ${DMPFILE}.Z ${LOGFILE}

#pipe name
mknod ${EXPDIR}/${SOURCE}fcompress p
chmod 644 ${EXPDIR}/${SOURCE}fcompress

print "Start Compress Pipe" >> ${shlog}
compress < ${EXPDIR}/${SOURCE}fcompress > ${DMPFILE}.Z &
TMPDIR=/xxxxx
errorfile=${TMPDIR}/errcheckf$$.${ORACLE_SID}
touch ${errorfile}


print "Begin Export\n" >> ${shlog}
export ORACLE_SID=${ORACLE_SID}
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/exp userid=${xxxx}/${xxx} file=${EXPDIR}/${SOURCE}fcompress log=${LOGFILE} DIRECT=Y FULL=Y >>${shlog} 2>&1

# check for export errors
cat ${LOGFILE} | grep EXP-000 | grep -v EXP-00067 >> ${errorfile}
bkpemail=xxxxx@us.hsbc.com
if [ -s "${errorfile}" ]
then
print "\nError in full export of ${ORACLE_SID} database!\n" >> ${shlog}
print "Ending program ${@} `date` ${0}." >>${shlog} 2>&1
mailx -s "(${ORACLE_SID}) Full Database Export Error" ${bkpemail} < ${shlog}
cat ${shlog}
return 1
fi

print "Export was Successful!" >> ${shlog}

rm -f ${errorfile}
rm -f ${EXPDIR}/*fcompress*

print "Cleanup log files\n" >> ${shlog}

#clean up files

find ${LOGDIR}/export_full_${ORACLE_SID}*.log -type f -mtime +7 -print | xargs rm -f
find ${LOGDIR}/exp_full_${ORACLE_SID}*.log -type f -mtime +7 -print | xargs rm -f

print "Ending program ${@} `date`${0}." >>${shlog} 2>&1


return 0

I think this behavior is due to the exp command which, if oracle is down, enters in interactive mode and asks the user for username/password without exiting immediately (but I tested it quickly, maybe there's another reason).

However, I recommend you to test if oracle is down *before* you try to invoke the export command. Just add these simple lines:

Bye