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

THIS IS A DEVELOPMENT VERSION OF ORAC, AND AN ATTEMPT TO ADD ORACLE 
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS TO ORAC, AS WELL AS DBA ONES.  FOR STABLE DBA USAGE,
UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, USE THE Orac-1.2.0 DOWNLOAD.

   Copyright (c) 1998,1999,2000,2001 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).
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NB: ....Oracle Development Usage Gradually Being Added...
    .........By Andy Duncan & Richard Sutherland.........

NB: ....Further Oracle DBA Development Gradually Being Added...
    ..................By Richard Sutherland....................

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.  You may wish
to download this if you have any problems with these later development
versions, if you are a DBA.

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: perl5.6.0

             DBI-1.10

             Tk800.000

             Latest relevant DBD database driver for DBI-1.10
             (eg: For Oracle DBD-Oracle-1.xx)

   Oracle developers will also require Richard Sutherland's DDL::Oracle
   module.  We are using:

             DDL-Oracle-1.07.tar.gz 

   This (or the latest version) is available from:

   http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/modules/by-authors/id/R/RV/RVSUTHERL/

   For an indefinite period, the latest DDL::Oracle package will
   come automatically with the Orac download.  This may change.  If you
   go to the DDL directory within this distribution, you will also
   see the tools which come with the DDL::Oracle release, which may
   be of some use to you.

ORACLE DEVELOPER GRAPHICAL OPTION:

   If you have DBD-Chart installed, Oracle developers also acquire
   a graphical option automatically.

   1.  You can get hold of DBD-Chart from:

       => http://home.earthlink.net/~darnold/dbdchart/

       This module also requires the installation of GD.pm and the full
       instructions for installing this are within the DBD-Chart
       documentation. Hopefully GD.pm will eventually become part
       of the standard Perl distribution.
    
   2.  Use of DBD-Chart also requires the separate Perl/Tk installation of
       Tk::PNG (at least version 2.005) which is available from:
    
       => http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/modules/by-module/Tk/
    
       Hopefully Tk::PNG will be part of standard Perl/Tk shortly.

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 perl5.6.0, DBD-Oracle-1.06, DBI-1.14 & Tk800.022
*). 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 Hall of Fame, in alphabetical surname order:

Bruce Albrecht
Kevin Brannen
Andy Duncan <andy_j_duncan@yahoo.com> Oracle Devel Work
Sean Hull
Kevin Kitts
Thomas Lowery
Charles Wolfe, Guru
Alex Shnir
Richard Sutherland <rvsutherland@yahoo.com> Oracle DBA & Devel Work

FUTURE OF Orac:

There is no plan.  We're just going to keep going until they take us away.


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.
Orac-1.2.1  Yep, it HAS been a while, but let's get this monkey running
            again.  The VERY early beginnings of developer support
            for Oracle developers using Richard Sutherland's DDL option.
            Thanks to Andy Campbell, Sun employee and DBA genius! :-)
Orac-1.2.2  Much more embodiement of Richard Sutherland's DDL-Oracle
            coded by RVS and AndyD.  This version of Oracle now automatically 
            incorporates the latest version of DDL::Oracle.  Automatic
            detection of DBA or normal development user.  Wishlists
            are welcome of where Oracle Development functionality
            should go next.  We're just making this up as we go along! :-)
Orac-1.2.3  On the Oracle DBA side, Richard Sutherland has added a new 
            instance method -- show_space -- to DDL::Oracle.  It produces 
            a space analysis report similar to the old 
            Tab_FreeSpace.99.sql and Index_FreeSpace.99.sql.  These are
            now no longer called, therefore we move closer to full GPL.
            On the VERY experimental Oracle developer side of life, Andy
            has added further developer options based on DDL-Oracle,
            and a graphics option, if Perl has GD, Tk::PNG and DBD::Chart
            installed.  AD fixed some disconnection warning errors
            and the menu switches between Oracle developer and DBA.

Orac-alpha-1.2.4  Upgrade to Perl 5.6.0.  Lots of other fiddly bits to do
                  with charting, but these still very ALPHA.
Orac-alpha-1.2.5  More development stuff, and Richard has extended
                  DDL::Oracle usage to cover even more Oracle8i areas.

EXTRA NOTES FOR LINUX USERS:

Originally provided by Kevin Kitts.

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

Packages on top:

*. DBD-Oracle8 (or DBD-Sybase etc)
*. DBI
*. Tk

*. Install the ActivePerl binary distribution
from ActiveState.com

*. Then download and install the binaries for the
various modules (Tk, DBI, DBD-Oracle8, etc)
from ActiveState's Perl package site via PPM.

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

The ActiveState URLs are:

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

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

=> 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.

EOF
