sp_helptext viewname

that´s it.

e.g.
desc user_views;
desc all_views;

see a view’s def:
select TEXT from [viewname];

sqlplus $DBPOINTER << EOF > tables_oracle

select TABLE_NAME from ALL_ALL_TABLES;
EOF

This pipes the output into a file called tables_oracle. Ah, and by the way, this might be interesting for who is looking for a method to input something into his Oracle without logging in, just command line. Use << EOF.

To get the Oracle version, use this:

select * from v$version;

BANNER
----------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle9i Release 9.2.0.5.0 - 64bit Production PL/SQL Release 9.2.0.5.0 - Production
CORE 9.2.0.5.0 Production
TNS for Solaris: Version 9.2.0.5.0 - Production NLSRTL Version 9.2.0.5.0 - Production

SQL> show rel
release 902000500

The first one speaks for itself. The second one, show rel, means “show release”. Corresponds to what stands up above. Funny zeros, though.
Found a lot of help on the net. Check it out & thanks:

http://forums.devshed.com/oracle-development-96/show-tables-in-oracle-135613.html

http://www.akadia.com/services/ora_important_part_2.html

…and you know you are NEVER going to use them, because mounting devices on machines like this can be a pain in the ass.
Recently, though, I had to use a floppy disk, and this was surprisingly easy on Solaris 9.

/home/techero>su
Password:
#volcheck
#cd /floppy/floppy0

To get rid of the floppy disk:
#eject fd0

…that´s it ! eject unmounts the floppy.

by the way, these are the floppy nicks and their mapping in /dev (taken from eject man page):


Nickname / Path

fd -> /dev/rdiskette
fd0 -> /dev/rdiskette
fd1 -> /dev/rdiskette1
diskette -> /dev/rdiskette
diskette0 -> /dev/rdiskette0
diskette1 -> /dev/rdiskette1
rdiskette -> /dev/rdiskette
rdiskette0 -> /dev/rdiskette0
rdiskette1 -> /dev/rdiskette1
floppy -> /dev/rdiskette
floppy0 -> /dev/rdiskette0
floppy1 -> /dev/rdiskette1

• checks the start time of certain processes, and
• if the time that the process is running exceeds a configurable limit , brutally extermine the thing.

For this task,
ps -eo pid, etime, args

does a neat thing. It prints out the elapsed time (the “e” in etime) in POSIX format. check man ps to find out whatever that means.
The output format is like this:

5059 7-13:09:53 /bin/zsh /usr/bin/grml-x fluxbox

…which of course means: PID 5059, elapsed time 7 days, 13 hours, 09 minutes, 53 seconds.
This is the time I started this cute little window manager from the shell.

The ps parameters used are :
-e lists information about evey process running
-o prints information according to the format specified

…so saying “I want the pid, the elapsed time, and all the rest of the info” gives you the result up above.
There is also an option stime for -o , but this only returns the starting day.

techero@barrioverde ~ % ps -eo pid,stime,args|grep 5059
5059 Feb07 /bin/zsh /usr/bin/grml-x fluxbox

In order to check the total time a process is running in minutes, I can go about like this:

if ([[[0-9]{1,2}-]{0,1}[[0-9]{1,2}:]{0,1}]{0,1}[0-9]{1,2}:[0-9]{2} matches etime)
    set temporary_result to 0
    if (split at "-") is successful     # this means there is a "day" field
             set arg[0] to days
             multiply days by 1440
             add result to temporary_result
             remove arg[0]              # for further processing
    if (split at ":") returns an array of three elements   # there is an "hour" field
             set arg[0] to hours
             multiply hours by 60
             add result to temporary_result
             add arg[1] to temporary_result
       else if (split at ":") returns two elements     # it's just minutes and seconds
             add arg[0] to temporary_result
    return temporary_result     # the process time in minutes

  else return errorcode # if the regular expression was not matched

Don’t worry about the regex in line 1 of the pseudocode. There will be some info on regex, too.

I will post the script soon.

1. repeat the last command in the history
debian:~# !!

2. repeat the last command starting with a “p” (for example, ps aux)
debian:~# !p

3. you know that you have used different commands starting with “p”, so you want the last “perl” command you started:
debian:~# !perl

4. you have used the command vi to edit /etc/password
debian:~# vi /etc/passwd
but actually, you wanted to see /etc/apache2/httpd.conf, so this is what you do
debian:~# ^passwd^apache2/httpd.conf

..the ^ (accent circonflexe) says : replace ^this by ^that

5. you wanted to edit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf , but forgot the .conf
debian:~# vi /etc/apache2/httpd

simply add “.conf” without typing too much:
debian:~# !!.conf

6. instead of changing directory to /etc/init.d, you mistakenly tried to edit it:
debian:~# vi /etc/init.d

..save some time changing directory:
debian:~# cd !$
takes you to /etc/init.d What !$ does is, it reproduces the last argument of the last command entered, as in this case, it is /etc/init.d

apt-get install libxml-sax-perl

I received the following error:

(...)
Setting up libxml-sax-perl (0.12-5) ...
Can't locate object method "save_parsers_debian" via package "XML::SAX" at /usr/bin/update-perl-sax-parsers line 90.
(...)

…this was resolved pretty easily

debian:~# locate SAX.pm
(...)
/usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/XML/SAX.pm
(...)
/usr/share/perl5/XML/SAX.pm

debian:~# grep save_parsers_debian /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/XML/SAX.pm
debian:~#
debian:~# grep save_parsers_debian /usr/share/perl5/XML/SAX.pm
sub save_parsers_debian {

..this means the first file can be removed, because it cannot be used for setting up libxml-sax-perl,
I chose to just back it up.

debian:~# mv /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/XML/SAX.pm /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/XML/SAX.pm.bak

debian:~# !apt
apt-get install libxml-sax-perl

…this worked perfectly.
This workaround was provided here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1302053#post1302053

…many thanks !

yours,
techero.