PL/SQL invoking a korn shell
Arghhh... I'm going crazy with this and hope somebody has an answer.
We have a kornshell script that invokes Oracle reports to generate a number of pdf files. We would like to call that script via a URL from a webpage (press a button on a webpage and all these pdfs get generated and moved hither and yon).
The kornshell runs fine from the command line, but when it gets called via a URL it chokes. We were getting an error right at the start of the script saying DISPLAY was giving us problems. I think DISPLAY is a function in the X Winfows library. Then again, it might be a permissions problem.
First we tried to set the ENV for the kornshell (we thought that might be where the DISPLAY error was coming from). No go. Then I tried to get around that by calling a perl script which used SYSTEM() to invoke the shell and then the script -- but alas, that just led to different errors.
Anybody in here know an answer or direction we should be looking at?
Mark Hensler posted this at 16:28 — 2nd September 2003.
He has: 4,048 posts
Joined: Aug 2000
How do you run this successfully? Are you in an X-Windows environment? Or can you run it fine from an SSH connection?
mairving posted this at 17:06 — 2nd September 2003.
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It is either one of two things or both:
Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states
doublehelix posted this at 17:20 — 2nd September 2003.
They have: 117 posts
Joined: Feb 2002
We're in the x-windows environment when we run it from the command line. The ksh script starts by reading the ENV file and that is where the script called by a URL appears to keel over. My first guess was that the script, when called from a URL, wasn't running the ksh script inside the Korn Shell and that's where it got lost. That's why I tried the intermediate Perl script, because I thought that I would be able to invoke the shell when I called it via system.
when I run it I'm back to the same error: DISPLAY=mantaray:0.0: is not an identifier
Am I correct in thinking that DISPLAY is part of xlib?
doublehelix posted this at 17:23 — 2nd September 2003.
They have: 117 posts
Joined: Feb 2002
mairving,
Ya know... I never did check to see if the directory it is being output to is 777. It is probably 755. I'll check that. I'll also check into which shell the webserver user defaults to. Thanks.
Mark Hensler posted this at 04:34 — 3rd September 2003.
He has: 4,048 posts
Joined: Aug 2000
Well, perhaps try faking the ENV. I had dificulty calling lynx from apache on some systems. I ended up doing this:
`LYNX_TEMP_SPACE=/tmp; export LYNX_TEMP_SPACE; lynx -dump http://example.com 1>/dev/null 2>&1`'What you'd need to do, is echo $DISPLAY from inside X-Windows to find out what a correct value is.Mark Hensler
If there is no answer on Google, then there is no question.
doublehelix posted this at 19:37 — 5th September 2003.
They have: 117 posts
Joined: Feb 2002
Hey, I want to thank you guys who offered help. We actually ended up implementing it in a slightly different way. We're using Util_File to generate the kornshell on the fly. Then we invoke that script by calling it with a Java stored procedure with a PL/SQL wrapper. It gives us the advantage of using both unix and oracle's security mechanisms.
Eh, you've heard of extreme programming, we're perfecting the next great idea -- Rube Goldberg programming.
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