UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi

Im trying to run zip shell command from an Oracle job, but this has limitations.
This should take a few of explanaition,..
Oracle allows me to execute a command and then I can set up a fixed number of arguments. Ex: (summarizing in something like..):

JOB DEFINITION
job_name: test
job_action: /usr/bin/zip
job_arguments: 4

and then:
JOB test ARGUMENTS
ARGUMENT 1: -j
ARGUMENT 2: foo.zip
ARGUMENT 3: foo01
ARGUMENT 4: foo02

Then oracle execute "zip -j foo.zip foo01 foo02"
But the problem comes when I need an indetermined number of arguments, and cannot use spaces in arguments definitions.
So I was wondering in using something like

JOB DEFINITION
job_name: test
job_action: /bin/sh
job_arguments: 2

and then:
JOB test ARGUMENTS
ARGUMENT 1: -c
ARGUMENT 2: "/usr/bin/zip -j foo.zip foo01 foo02 andwhateverstringiwanttoconcattothis"

This *should* work, but, somehow, not .

Then I've been wondering if I can write the arguments in a plain text file and then pass arguments from that file.
It must be something like..

$ cat filename-with-args-inside
-j foo.zip foo01 foo02

$ /usr/bin/zip [SHELLOPERATORORWHATEVER] filename-with-args-inside

Is this possible?
How it should be?

I have a lazy remember from my student past that in bash that you could do this with '<<<', like:

$ /usr/bin/zip <<<filename-with-args-inside

..But it doesnt work


Any idea?

Regards

Moderator's Comments:

Please use next time code tags for your code and data

Can't you put whole command into file and execute it as script? For example:

Code:

JOB DEFINITION
job_name: test
job_action: /bin/sh
job_arguments: 1

and then:
JOB test ARGUMENTS
ARGUMENT 1: "/path/to/script.sh"

script.sh:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/zip -j foo.zip foo01 foo02 andwhateverstringiwanttoconcattothis

Yes, can do that.
Evenmore, the meaning of the capacity in execute shell commands from Oracle is intended to exec scripts, and thats why it's so poorly when you want to do complex shell instructions.

But the thing is that we want to avoid the use of shell scripts. We want to isolate the whole operation from external scripts or programs.


I had the idea of making the shell script from oracle in run time and then launch it, but the gap here is that we cant change file permissions from oracle.

Regards.

You can still do that, because you don't need to set a file executable to run it.

Just

Code:

/bin/sh /path/to/script.sh

For the sh -c problem, try removing the quotes from your second string perhaps? I wonder if oracle is presenting the quotes to the shell literally.

... OK. This is how it works.

It was easier than I thought.
Thanks Corona688 =]