Perl for Oracle DBAs (Paperback)

by Andy Duncan (Author), Jared Still (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Perl is a wonderfully powerful and efficient tool for database administrators. It can be used to manage, monitor and tune your Oracle database. But the challenge for most Oracle DBAs is that, in spite of the benefits of using Perl, they have neither the time nor the resources to become Perl experts. Fortunately, you don't need to be a Perl expert to use Perl scripts. Perl for Oracle DBAs includes everything you'll need to get started using this popular open source language to manage your database, from an introduction to Perl to a wealth of ready-to-use DBA scripts. If you've wanted to see what Perl can do for your development and database administration, this book will guide you step-by-step through the process. Perl for Oracle DBAs comes with a toolkit of more than 100 useful scripts that you can use to create databases and users, clone database DDL, maintain user data, compare schemas, monitor database performance, backup data, and perform many other tasks. Written by Oracle DBAs for Oracle DBAs, this book walks you through everything you need to know to put Perl to work for you right away.

About the Author
Andy Duncan is the coauthor of Oracle & Open Source (O'Reilly, 2001), as well as Perl for Oracle DBAs (O'Reilly, 2002). The first book arose after Andy's creation, in 1998, of the Orac Perl/Tk tool for Oracle DBAs. Since then, he has worked mainly as an independent development and DBA consultant, and has counted both Oracle Corporation and Sun Microsystems among his long-term clients. In addition to performing Oracle, Perl, and Java consultancy work, Andy teaches as a senior instructor for Learning Tree International, covering both introductory and advanced Perl courses. He lives in Oxfordshire, England.

Jared Still has been an Oracle DBA in health insurance and manufacturing environments since 1994 (and version 7.0.13 of Oracle). He first began dabbling with Perl in 1993 and it was love at first sight. Perl became an integral part of his Oracle toolkit when it was used to rapidly prototype and implement complex reporting based on data in Oracle databases. Jared has been working with databases of various ilks since 1988, and along the way has also worked as a Unix system administrator. When not riding herd on the databases at the OK Corral, he likes to spend time tinkering on his car, fly fishing, or sitting on the deck in the backyard at his home doing absolutely nothing. He can be reached at [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 1 edition (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596002106
• ISBN-13: 978-0596002107
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 5.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #260,472 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #16 in

  Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Oracle > DBA

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for DBAs wanting to take advantage of perl, December 2, 2002

By	Guy Harrison - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've always loved perl and wrote a lot of utilities to monitor and manage databases when I worked as a full time DBA (using oraperl & perl4). However, over the years as my focus shifted to wider software architecture I found it difficult to keep up with new releases, modules and so forth. From time to time I would visit CPAN but the sheer volume of modules and the limited time I had was preventing me from taking full advantage of modern perl.

Jared and Andy's book neatly solved this problem. Within an hour of opening their book I had fully upgraded my perl and added heaps of fantastic utilities that I never even knew existed. Sometimes perl can be hard to install and configure but this book makes it a breeze.

This book is indispensable if you are trying to get started with perl - and every DBA should! If you are already a perl user I'm sure you'll learn about new features or find utilities that will repay the cost of the book many times over.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AS FINE AS A PEARL COULD BE, January 12, 2003

By	reviewer (Zurich, Switzerland.) - See all my reviews

"Perl for Oracle DBAs" is indeed a real pearl. This 600-plus paged volume was designed to be a reliable friend of any administrator, whose responsibilities include the oiling of Oracle database machinery.
The book, which comes with a toolkit package that contains more than a hundred ready-to-use programs, bared all the mysteries that surround Oracle/Perl software: including Oracle Call Interface (OCI), Perl DataBase Interface (DBI), as well as all the other modules that commune with both software.
This book runs as smoothly as any pearl could run.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perl makes life easier, October 2, 2002

By	Mr. Shaun O'Malley (Maidenhead, Berkshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

Over time, as we develop systems, cut code, administer data bases and perform myriad other tasks, we tend to build up a 'kit bag' of useful tricks, code snippets and techniques.
This book makes a welcome contribution with its numerous code examples and clear explanations.

Although, as the title suggests, this is aimed primarily at Oracle administrators, there is much here for those with more than a passing interest in the rich text-processing language that is Perl.

With library modules also available for Sysbase and MySQL, for example, connections across disparate databases are a simple matter of appropriate API calls.

Indeed, in the excellent appendices, there is a code example showing simultaneous connections to both an Oracle and a MySQL database and how to extract and process data between them
using Perl code and embedded SQL. The ability to do this easily and efficiently without resorting to dump and re-loads using ASCII flat files was a small revelation.

With their clear real-world approach, incisive and, often witty, explanations and observations, the enthusiasm of the authors for their subject is clear.

This book is not only a boon to data base administrators but should also prove to be very useful to those who simply want to learn more about the power of Perl.