Orac  --  DBA GUI tool for Perl/Tk; Oracle, Informix and Sybase

   Copyright (c) 1998,1999,2000 Andy Duncan, England

   email:         andy_j_duncan@yahoo.com
   CPAN id:       CPAN/authors/id/A/AN/ANDYDUNC

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        Orac runs over the *Web* using a Netscape Perl/Tk Plug-In
        created by Frank Holt.  Please run up Orac, and go to Help
        information for more details (help/WebPlugIn.txt).
=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+

NB: This README file does not contain all of the information within
the Orac distribution.  For more specialised information, please go
to our "docs" or "help" directories.

Orac-1.2.0 is the latest stable version of Orac.

Orac WEB PAGE:

You can usually find our web page at:

=> http://www.kkitts.com/orac-dba/

We also have a mirror at:

=> http://www.tux.org/orac-dba/ 

This is managed by Kevin Kitts.  Please go here for the latest information,
on Orac.


TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE:

   You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Public
   License or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README file,
   with the exception that it cannot be placed on a CD-ROM or similar media
   for commercial distribution without the prior approval of the author.

PLEASE NOTE:

   Some of the Oracle SQL scripts which come with this Perl program,
   are copyrighted to Brian Lomasky.  Please seek clarification from
   Brian before you extend the use of these SQL scripts beyond this
   Perl program.  Such scripts can be easily identified by the header:

   /* From Oracle Scripts, O Reilly and Associates, Inc. */
   /* Copyright 1998 by Brian Lomasky, DBA Solutions, Inc., */
   /* lomasky@earthlink.net */

WARNING:

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR DISTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY
FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, ITS DOCUMENTATION, OR ANY
DERIVATIVES THEREOF, EVEN IF THE AUTHORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

THE AUTHORS AND DISTRIBUTORS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.  THIS SOFTWARE
IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE AUTHORS AND DISTRIBUTORS HAVE
NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR
MODIFICATIONS.


PREREQUISITES (For Everybody)

   At least: perl5.005_02
             DBI-1.13
             Tk800.015
             Latest relevant DBD database driver for DBI-1.13

LINUX USERS:

   There are some further notes at the end of this README file
   for Linux users.

WINDOWS NT USERS:

   There are some further notes at the end of this README file
   for Windows NT users.

REALLY QUICK START GUIDE:

   perl orac_dba.pl <RETURN>


SLIGHTLY LESS QUICK START GUIDE (based upon Oracle on Solaris):

*). Load perl5.005_02, DBD-Oracle-1.03, DBI-1.13 & Tk800.015
*). Unzip (gzip -d, gunzip) the Orac-x.y.z.tar.gz file
*). Untar (tar xvf) the Orac-x.y.z.tar file
*). Set ORACLE_HOME in your environment
*). Run orac_dba.pl, first making sure the top line of the
    file has the right Perl string address, eg:
        => #!/usr/local/bin/perl
    Or run it with the Perl program directly, 'perl orac_dba.pl'.
*). Most things should be fairly straightforward after that.


NOTE ON USER CUSTOMISATIONS

User customisations (e.g., last DB accessed and user tool menus) go to either:
   1) If $ORAC_HOME (%ORAC_HOME% for Windows) exists, to that directory
   2) If on Windows, %USERPROFILE%/orac
   3) $HOME/.orac

Users no longer have to cd into the Orac distribution directory.  On
Unix systems, you could have a symbolic link from
/usr/local/bin/orac_dba.pl to the Orac distribution directory.  On
Windows machines, you could have a shortcut to the Orac_dba.pl
(although this doesn't work from the command line).  $ORAC_HOME can be
set to a shared directory if users want to share their user
customisations.


ABOUT Orac:

Preamble: This tool was originally developed on an Ultra-5 Sun Solaris 2.6 Sun
workstation.  There may be incompatibilities on your workstation, which may
need a little source code tinkering.  Our apologies.  Please mail us if this
is the case.  Even better, email us the coded up solution :-)

Orac is a Perl/Tk tool written in order to store many different and hopefully
useful SQL scripts within one central easy-to-use interface repository.
It is a Read-Only 'as is' GUI tool (ie: no DDL, DML, transactions, commits or
rollbacks, only selects)* and will be updated continuously to improve its
functionality and GUI-ness simplicity.  If you have any useful SQL scripts,
which you would like to be included within Orac, or requirements which you
think may be useful to others, please mail them to me and we'll try and embed
them in the next release.

If you read through the revision history below, you'll see many such ideas
have been taken up, and are now integral parts of the main Orac tool.

Simple graphical ideas for turning difficult-to-read database information
into useful pictures are particularly welcomed, as is functionality
not currently supplied within other GUI tools.  General ideas for improving
Orac (which began life as a SQL script for killing rogue Oracle processes)
are always welcomed.

We hope you both enjoy using Orac, and save yourself some time by using it.

*Occasionally, this rule is bent a little to allow such tool extensions as
our 'Explain Plan' functionality for Oracle users.


Orac MONGERS (in alphabetical surname order):

Name           Email/Webpage                    Patches of Interest
----           -------------                    -------------------

Bruce Albrecht <bruce@zuhause.mn.org>           Multi-User Functionality

Kevin Brannen  <kbrannen@physiciansdata.com>    Informix/RulesMeister

Andy Duncan    <andy_j_duncan@yahoo.com>        Oracle, OracWeb

Sean Hull      <sean.hull@pobox.com>            Linux/Oracle
               http://www.iheavy.com/           OracWeb Guru Meister

Kevin Kitts    <kkitts@his.com>                 Linux/Webmaster
               http://www.kkitts.com/

Thomas Lowery  <stlassociates@usa.net>          Shell/OO Development
               http://tlowery.hypermart.net/

Charles Wolfe  <cwolfe@ix.netcom.com>           NT Guru

Alex Shnir     <alex@getmessage.com>            Sybase


FUTURE OF Orac:

We want to create a completely OS independent, database
independent Open Source tool.  If you'd like to help us do this, and/or join
the Orac Mongers listing above, please let us know and we'll go from there.


REVISION HISTORY:
-----------------
Vers Date   Comment
---- ----   -------
0.01 Jan 99
0.02 Jan 99 Original code revised to make more stable on other platforms.
            Removed all '-font' usage and wrapped some statements in 'eval'
            statements to prevent premature shutdowns.  Also took all SQL
            out of program and placed in flat files to be called
            as-and-when necessary (also allows for easier SQL modification).
0.03 Feb 99 After further comments, radical revision carried out to
            shrink Orac into 1 Perl script, rather than numerous heavy
            modules.  Also revised Orac to use Tk4 partly to remove errors
            for people using Tk4, and because the new 'Learning Perl/Tk'
            manual recommends G. Sarathy's Win32 binary executable, which
            currently uses Tk4.  Preparing code for first port away from
            Solaris 2.6 UNIX.
            Thanks to Tim Bunce for constructive criticism.
0.04 Apr 99 Adjustments after first DBI-Users release.
0.05 Apr 99 More Adjustments after first DBI-Users release.
            Thanks in particular to Sean Hull for support.
0.06 Apr 99 Cleaned up a few extraneous debug statements.  Decided to not
            attempt ports, after hearing from some Linux users that
            Orac ran "out-of-the-box", also NT and my mind do not fit
            together.  Also, must add more functionality.
            Tasklist this time, resizing of windows should be better.
            Hit Ratios values should be clearer.
            Thanks especially to Kevin Kitts.
0.07 May 99 More Buggette cleaning, and better screen resizing on Form.
            MTS support, under the Tuning button (thanks to Steve Shaw).
            Background colour option added (thanks to Honza Pazdziora)
            under File option.
            Language Independence added, edit the txt/language.txt file
            to change all Orac Menus, buttons etc, to your own text.
            New 'My Tools' menu Option created to add your own SQL
            reports on-the-fly.
            (thanks to Jared Still for the inspiration on this one)
            Addition of 'User' field on main database connection
            screen to allow DBAs to use secure system-like users,
            with more security conscious permissions.
            (Thanks to Kevin Kitts for this one).
Orac-1.0.0  New numbering system.  This is a rename of ORAC-DBA-0.07,
            and the latest totally 'stable' version.
            We are now using an Orac-x.y.z numbering system such that:
               x is the major version number
               y is the minor version number
               z is the minor minor version number
            When 'y' is 'even', Orac is stable, when 'odd', Orac
            is developmental (though we still recommend its download as
            we do not relase REALLY experimental versions).
Orac-1.1.0  First of new Developmental 1.1.z Series
            Finally got round to adding 'Interactive Form' for all
            the Oracle Views in the database, accessible by 'Object' menu.
            Added Orac icons for various iconizable windows.
            (Thanks to Edmund Mergl for sending us a coded patch).
            After an email from Kevin Brannen, and a fit of madness,
            decided to try and make Orac database independent.  Are
            we all mad?  Maybe, but it's fun, fun, fun in Orac City.
            (Thanks to Charles Wolfe for sending us some extremely
            valuable installation information.  He is a God-like
            Guru of a Class A1 nature)
            Thanks to Guy Harrison for allowing us to adapt his scripts
            from his excellent High-Performance Tuning manual.
            Many of these scripts have now been used in this version
            of Orac, and much more will be done later to improve our
            use of them.
            Added SQL Browser/Explain Plan for Oracle
            Better report formatting
            Current Oracle future plans include a 'dbish' window,
            Further non-Oracle database (particularly Informix) functionality,
            Eventual addition of Sybase functionality.
            More help files, comments in code,
            More modularity,
            +whatever else you'd like us to add?
Orac-1.1.1  (Oracle) Neater 'Explain Plan' utility, On-the-fly SQL execution
            utility.  Tidied a few 'uninitialized variable bugs'.
Orac-1.1.2  (Informix) More functionality added. (Oracle) More tidying, plus
            better/quicker use of config files, and use of SQL Browser without
            PLAN_TABLE in db.
Orac-1.1.3  A lot of file tidying for Oracle, and further Informix additions.
            May be a little flaky, and tidied up in the 1.1.4 release.
Orac-1.1.4 -
Orac-1.1.7  Private releases changing code from 'structured'
            - ok, spaghetti  :) - to the beginnings of object-oriented code.
            one known bug, under Oracle, the special buttons on 'MTS
            statistics', and 'whos locking who' screens, not working
            correctly.  This will be sorted out in 1.1.8 (promise).
Orac-1.1.8  Back to public releases of developing code.
            First cut of orac_Shell.
            Total use of generic_hlist() rather than gn_hl().
            Further improvement of windows handling.
            Known Oracle Bug with some interactive buttons, still on ice.
Orac-1.1.9  Small fix in orac_Base for show_sql() and also had
            to replace all the orac_Show() calls with the generic
            $dialog->Show function, to prevent screen lock-ups
            on NT.
Orac-1.1.10 A lot more tidying.
Orac-1.1.11 Additional Oracle items on menus.
Orac-1.1.12 Bug fixes for Orac-1.1.11 (thanks Duc)
Orac-1.1.13 More patches, plus latest orac_Shell
Orac-1.1.14 More of the same.
Orac-1.1.15 Gradual Addition of Alex's Sybase functionality.
            + multi-user functionality added by Bruce Albrecht
Orac-1.1.16 Private releases of 1.1.15 tidied up, and put together
            for this public release.
Orac-1.1.17 private: Further changes to orac_Shell, new orac_Sybase,
            brand new orac_FileSelect module.
Orac-1.1.18 -
Orac-1.1.25 Many incremental private releases making as many windows
            as possible independent, adding Font abilities, limited
            Print options and a generalised File viewer.  Also
            much more use of icons to ease use of program.  Functionally
            not much different from 1.1.16 but hopefully a lot easier,
            and a lot more pleasant to use.
Orac-1.1.26 First public release of 'new-look' iconized, independent
            windowed Orac.  Hope you like it!  :-)  (I do)
Orac-1.1.27 -
Orac-1.1.30 Incremental early development of Monitoring + bug fixes,
            + other bits
Orac-1.1.31 Public Release of OracMonitor.
Orac-1.1.32 -
Orac-1.1.33 Tidying, fixing etc,etc - thanks to Sean Kamath - and
            attempts at code reduction.  Thanks to Edmund Mergl for
            initial 8i fix.  More to be found I'm sure.
Orac-1.1.34 Cleaning up newly introduced bugs.
Orac-1.1.35 Horrible bug fix for ActiveState not requiring ORACLE_HOME,
            where unixlike does.
Orac-1.1.36 Attempt on Monitor fix.  Steve Humpage 'join' to 'catfile'
            fix for backward compatibility.
Orac-1.1.37 New orac_Sybase from Alex.
Orac-1.1.38 -
Orac-1.1.40 Final 1.1 KevinB Informix change, +changes to Shell
Orac-1.1.41 -
Orac-1.1.43 - ... Shell development, trying to fix Monitor Bug
Orac-1.1.44 Monitor Bug is an Oracle-Linux bug.  Oracle have been told
            and hopefully will fix in later Oracle version.
Orac-1.1.45 Bits and Bobs.
Orac-1.1.46 Final Beta release of Tom's Shell program + addition of
            primitive help for getting OracWeb going.
Orac-1.1.47 Mix-up on Beta module versions, should now be sorted out.
Orac-1.1.48 Change on Oracle curr_users_orac.1.sql script by Andre Seesink
            +other code changes by Andre marked in files :-)
Orac-1.1.49 Last Andre Seesink and Duncan Lawie upgrades, plus bug fix
            by DCL :-)
Orac-1.1.50 Slight changes, + more commenting and switching within the
            orac_Monitor module, which, after a consensus vote, will be kept
            within the distribution for later improvement despite problems.
            If you'd like to make this 100% kosher, please write and let
            us know :)
Orac-1.1.51 Heck and blast, a typo on my part.  Whoops, sorry fellas! :-)
Orac-1.2.0  After no adverse reports on 1.1.51, this is that release
            with this README file name and the program's version number
            changed.  Thanks to everyone who's helped us get this far.
            We ain't finished yet.

EXTRA NOTES FOR LINUX USERS:

The following summarised notes have been taken from
Kevin Kitts' Orac home page:

=> http://www.kkitts.com/orac-dba/

If you'd like any more detail, please go there first.

Requirements for Running Orac (under Linux)
-----------------------------------------------
perl 5.05
Tk 800_015 perl module (www.cpan.org)
DBI/DBD perl modules (www.hermetica.com)
Orac Download the latest stable version (or
development version if looking for latest functionality)

Using Orac under Linux
--------------------------
I've found a number of problems running Orac under RedHat 5.2. In order
to get things to work it was necessary to get the latest *source* rpm for
perl and rebuild perl. The man pages for rpm will explain how to do this
rebuild - it is very straightforward. Also, the latest version of the
perl Tk module (800_015) will be required as well. Lastly, you'll need
to get the DBI/DBD modules and compile them.

Make sure that you can get sql*plus to work first. If that works, make sure
that the DBI/DBD make tests pass. If all of the above condtions hold true
you should have no problem running Orac.

KNOWN LINUX-ORACLE BUG

There is a known Oracle-Linux bug, which may cause the Orac Monitor to fail
when attempting to connect to recently shutdown databases.  Oracle have been
informed, and will hopefully fix bug in a future release.  This is a general
OCI bug, and has caused problems with other programs.  One workround is not
to use Orac Monitor, but if this required, if you don't need LOBS etc then 
you could try recompiling DBI with 'perl Makefile.PL -8'.  See DBI README
for more details on this.

This bug may also occur on other OSes, but cannot be replicated on Solaris.

EXTRA NOTES FOR WINDOWS NT USERS:

Using Orac under Windows NT
-------------------------------
Environment required:

Basic Perl Requirement:

*. ActivePerl build 519 (or latest)

Packages on top:

*. DBD-Oracle (or DBD-Sybase etc)
*. DBI
*. Tk
*. Win32-TieRegistry

The above environment was created under the following
operating system conditions:

NT 4.0 Enterprise Edition (SP 3, no compiler)
---------------------------------------------
Nothing special is needed for the installation,
which should run smoothly using these instructions:

*. Install the ActivePerl binary distribution
from ActiveState.com

*. Then download and install the binaries for the
various modules (Tk, DBI, DBD-Oracle, etc)
from ActiveState's ftp site.

All the modules come with working install scripts,
so installation is just a matter of running
package manager script which comes with ActivePerl.

Then download Orac-x.y.z, install and run.
(probably always best to use latest version)

(The above instructions have also been tried on a
Win98 box with complete success)

The ActiveState URLs are:

=> http://www.activestate.com/ActivePerl/
=> http://www.activestate.com/packages/zips/

Packages Required:
------------------
The ActiveState packages you will need, will be Tk, DBI and
whichever DBD driver you need (eg: DBD::Oracle, DBD::Sybase).

You may find problems with Win32-TieRegistry errors.  If
this is the case, you may also need to install the Win32-TieRegistry
package, also from packages/zips.


Download
--------
You can download the latest Orac via:

=> http://www.kkitts.com/

or you can download directly from the master CPAN site, here:

=> ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/authors/id/A/AN/ANDYDUNC/

We have altered the DBI->connect routine to try a couple
of different versions-on-a-theme, to allow non-unix
boxes to connect remotely.  If you still cannot connect
remotely, you may have to slightly change the DBI->connect
statements to give DBI the right configuration for your
remote database connection.

Orac Users Mailing List
-----------------------
Please use the following mailing list resources to find out more about Orac:

For information on the installation, configuration and use of Orac you can
subscribe to the Orac User's mailing list by sending an empty e-mail (with the
word subscribe on the subject line) to:

manage-orac-dba-users-subscribe@listserv.kkitts.com

For those interested in following the developer discussion (or perhaps even
developing for Orac!) a developers list is available. Please send an empty
e-mail (with the word subscribe on the subject line) to:

manage-orac-dba-developers-subscribe@listserv.kkitts.com

EOF
