Up until version 12c, the RMAN command line parser was capable of
parsing certain DML and DDL statements.
To do this, we use the “sql” command from the RMAN command line, like
this.
11gHost>
rman
Recovery
Manager: Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production on Wed Aug 7 15:29:19 2013
Copyright (c)
1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
All rights reserved.
RMAN>
connect target
connected to
target database: TEST2 (DBID=1111111111)
RMAN> sql
'create table altdotoracle (col1 number)';
sql statement:
create table altdotoracle (col1 number)
RMAN> sql
'insert into altdotoracle values (1)';
sql statement:
insert into altdotoracle values (1)
However, one operation we could not do was SELECT. The RMAN parser lacked the facility to return
arrays of data to the screen. This shouldn’t
be surprising, considering that RMAN is intended to be used to run backup and
restore operations.
RMAN> sql
'select * from altdotoracle';
sql statement:
select * from altdotoracle
The statement does not error, but no data is returned. Now, in version 12c, we get two new benefits
in this area. First, we no longer need
to use the ‘sql’ command. For example…
12cHost>
rman
Recovery
Manager: Release 12.1.0.1.0 - Production on Wed Aug 7 15:35:27 2013
Copyright (c)
1982, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
All rights reserved.
RMAN>
connect target
connected to
target database: TEST1 (DBID=1212121212)
RMAN> create
table altdotoracle (col1 number);
Statement
processed
RMAN> insert
into altdotoracle values (1);
Statement
processed
Additionally, the RMAN parser in 12c allows us to run SELECT commands,
as well as DESCRIBE commands.
RMAN> select
* from altdotoracle;
COL1
----------
1
RMAN>
describe altdotoracle
Name
-----------------------------
COL1
The ability to use the ‘sql’ RMAN command is still supported for
backward compatibility. A simple thing,
but useful!
