GNU basename in PL/SQL

Reposted from The Pythian Group blog.In the process of scripting a database migration, I was in need of something akin to the GNU basename utility that I know and love on Linux. basename is most famous for taking a full file path string and stripping away the leading path component,... [Read More]

Does Oracle’s Block Change Tracking File Shrink?

Reposted from The Pythian Group blog.Just a quick post to get myself back into blogging mode. Recently in IRC (#oracle on freenode, to be precise), a fresh face asked if the Block Change Tracking file ever shrinks. She had been worrying about the file in her instance continuing to grow.... [Read More]

FLASHBACK TABLE vs. DBA_OBJECTS.LAST_DDL_TIME

NOTE: This post originally appeared on The Pythian Group blog on 6 June 2008, and is reposted here with permission.A little over a week ago, a teammate and I were trying to use Oracle’s FLASHBACK TABLE to undo an “oops” UPDATE statement that a client’s developers had run on one... [Read More]

Moving On Up

Today is my last day at my current employer. It has been an incredible learning experience, and I'll be forever grateful to the man who gave me the opportunity almost 7 years ago having zero knowledge of either Oracle or database administration.I have accepted an offer from noted consulting firm... [Read More]

Helpful Hints for RMAN Recovery

When you copy your backup files onto disk for RMAN to use for practicing cold-metal restore/recovery, make sure that they are at least visible to the oracle OS user.  It doesn't help to have them owned by root with perm 640.Thank me later.