PLSDBUG, a PL/SQL debugging package

This is PLSDBUG, a PL/SQL debugging package.

It is used to:

provide a PL/SQL debugging library with a plug and play architecture to enable different output channels
create a program plsdbug to receive debugging messages from Oracle PL/SQL

The following output channels are available:

DBMS_OUTPUT
DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO
PLSDBUG which interfaces with the PLSDBUG server and is based on:
1. the External Procedure Call toolkit (EPC)
2. the C debugging library DBUG
PROFILER
LOG4PLSQL

PLSDBUG itself consists of:

a PL/SQL library to be installed in the database
the C library (-lplsdbug)
a PLSDBUG server (program name plsdbug)
C headers

Follow these installation steps:

Step	When
DATABASE INSTALL	Always
INSTALL FROM SOURCE	When you want the install the rest (not the database) from source
INSTALL	When you want the install the rest and you have a `configure` script

CHANGELOG

See the file CHANGELOG.md.

DATABASE INSTALL

This section explains how to install just the PL/SQL library.

Preconditions

First install the database part of the EPC.

Next you need to install LOG4PLSQL. Running the sql/install_log_user/install.sql SQL*Plus script is sufficient for simple logging to a table TLOG. Have a look at its documention file index.html.

Installation

There are two methods to install the PLSDBUG PL/SQL library:

use the Oracle Tools GUI with the pom.xml file from the project root and schema ORACLE_TOOLS as the owner
execute src/sql/install.sql connected as the owner using SQL*Plus, SQLcl or SQL Developer

The advantage of the first method is that your installation is tracked and that you can upgrade later on.

INSTALL FROM SOURCE

Also called the MAINTAINER BUILD. You just need the sources either cloned from PLSBUG on GitHub or from a source archive.

You need a Unix shell which is available on Mac OS X, Linux and Unix of course. On Windows you can use the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), Cygwin or Git Bash.

You need the following programs:

automake
autoconf
libtool (on Mac OS X you need glibtool)

Next the following command will generate the Autotools configure script:

$ ./bootstrap

INSTALL

The PLSDBUG package depends on package DBUG, a C debugging library and EPC. All packages should be installed into the same lib and bin directories (e.g. use the same prefix when installing).

This section explains how to install the complete toolkit (including the PL/SQL library).

Preconditions

Install DBUG and EPC (non database part).

Here you need either a distribution archive with the configure script or you must have bootstrapped your environment.

Next the following command will generate the Autotools configure script:

$ ./bootstrap

Build

See file INSTALL for further installation instructions. Do not forget to set environment variable USERID as the Oracle connect string. This will install the PLSDBUG and DBUG_PLSDBUG package for interfacing with the plsdbug executable.

DOCUMENTATION

Issue this to (re-)generate the documentation:

$ make html

You will find these files now: