DBMS_TRACE programs

The following programs are available in the DBMS_TRACE package:

SET_PLSQL_TRACE

Starts PL/SQL tracing in the current session

CLEAR_PLSQL_TRACE

Stops the dumping of trace data for that session

PLSQL_TRACE_VERSION

Gets the major and minor version numbers of the DBMS_TRACE package

To trace execution of your PL/SQL code, you must first start the trace with a call to:

DBMS_TRACE.SET_PLSQL_TRACE (trace_level INTEGER);

in your current session, where trace_level is one of the following values:

· Constants that determine which elements of your PL/SQL program will be traced:

· DBMS_TRACE.trace_all_calls constant INTEGER := 1;· DBMS_TRACE.trace_enabled_calls constant INTEGER := 2;· DBMS_TRACE.trace_all_exceptions constant INTEGER := 4;· DBMS_TRACE.trace_enabled_exceptions constant INTEGER := 8;· DBMS_TRACE.trace_all_sql constant INTEGER := 32;· DBMS_TRACE.trace_enabled_sql constant INTEGER := 64;· DBMS_TRACE.trace_all_lines constant INTEGER := 128;DBMS_TRACE.trace_enabled_lines constant INTEGER := 256;

· Constants that control the tracing process:

· DBMS_TRACE.trace_stop constant INTEGER := 16384;· DBMS_TRACE.trace_pause constant INTEGER := 4096;· DBMS_TRACE.trace_resume constant INTEGER := 8192;DBMS_TRACE.trace_limit constant INTEGER := 16;

By combining the DBMS_TRACE constants, you can enable tracing of multiple PL/SQL language features simultaneously. Note that the constants that control the tracing behavior (such as DBMS_TRACE.trace_pause) should not be used in combination with the other constants (such as DBMS_TRACE.trace_enabled_calls).

To turn on tracing from all programs executed in your session, issue this call:

DBMS_TRACE.SET_PLSQL_TRACE (DBMS_TRACE.trace_all_calls);

To turn on tracing for all exceptions raised during the session, issue this call:

DBMS_TRACE.SET_PLSQL_TRACE (DBMS_TRACE.trace_all_exceptions);

You then run your code. When you are done, you stop the trace session by calling:

DBMS_TRACE.CLEAR_PLSQL_TRACE;

You can then examine the contents of the trace file. The names of these files are generated by Oracle; you will usually look at the modification dates to figure out which file to examine. The location of the trace files is discussed in the later section Section 19.6.2.5.

Note that you cannot use PL/SQL tracing with the multithreaded server (MTS).