Orac --  an Oracle 7.3 and Oracle 8 DBA GUI tool for Perl/Tk

   Copyright (c) 1998,1999  Andy Duncan, England

############################################################
# Please note new linux-like numbering/naming conventions.
# This version of Orac is identical to the old ORAC-DBA-0.07
# (except for this README file) and is the first usage of
# our new naming system.
#
# We are now using an 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, it is a stable release of Orac
# (eg: 1.0.0) and subsequent 'z' patches should also
# be stable (eg: 1.0.1).  If you want a stable product,
# please download these versions.
#
# When 'y' is odd, it is a development release of Orac
# (eg: 1.1.0) and subsequent 'z' patches will also
# be developmental (eg: 1.1.999), and therefore subject
# to instability.   If you like living on the bleeding
# edge, you may like to try these versions  :)
############################################################

   email:         andy_j_duncan@yahoo.com
   CPAN id:       CPAN/authors/id/A/AN/ANDYDUNC

Orac WEB PAGE:

Orac now has its own web page, which you can find at:

=> http://www.kkitts.com/orac-dba/

The web page is managed by Kevin Kitts.  Please see his Orac
page for more information.


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:

   THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" IN THE HOPE THAT IT WILL BE USEFUL, 
   BUT WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; WITHOUT EVEN THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF 
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

PREREQUISITES:

   You'll need perl5.005_02 & 
   modules DBD-Oracle-0.54, DBI-1.02 & Tk402.004
   In loading DBI, you'll have set ORACLE_HOME.  Please keep this set.

LINUX USERS:

   There are some further notes at the end of this README file
   for Linux users.

REALLY QUICK START GUIDE:

   perl orac_dba.pl <RETURN>


SLIGHTLY LESS QUICK START GUIDE:

*). Load perl5.005_02, DBD-Oracle-0.54, DBI-1.02 & Tk402.004
*). Unzip (gzip -d, gunzip) the Orac-x.y.z.tar.gz file
*). Untar (tar xvf) the Orac-x.y.z.tar file
*). cd Orac-x.y.z
*). 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.


ABOUT Orac:

Preamble: This tool was 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.  My apologies.  
Please mail me if this is the case.  Even better, email me the
coded up solution :-)

Orac is named after the original Universal Computer, 'Orac' from Blakes' Seven. 
It 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 I'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 V$ table 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.  Orac was built mainly upon Oracle 804 but should 
work equally well with anything Oracle 7.3 or over.  I hope you both enjoy 
using Orac, and save yourself some time by using it.

Orac MONGERS (in alphabetical surname order):

Name           Email                     Position
----           -----                     --------
Andy Duncan    andy_j_duncan@yahoo.com   Orac Solaris Supremo
Kevin Kitts    kkitts@his.com            Orac Linux Supremo

FUTURE OF Orac:

We are aiming, within the next few versions, to move to a completely GPL
solution.  If you'd like to help us do this, and join the Orac Mongers
listing above, please let us know and we'll go from there.


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).


EXTRA NOTES FOR LINUX USERS:

The following summarised notes have been taken from 
Kevin Kitts' Orac home page:

=> http://www.kkitts.com/orac-dba/

If you'd like any more detail, please go there for
more information.

Requirements for Runing Orac (under Linux)
----------------------------------------------
perl 5.05 
Tk 800_014 perl module (www.cpan.org) 
DBI/DBD perl modules (www.hermetica.com) 
Orac, Download the latest stable version (where in x.y.z, 'y' is even)

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_014) 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.

EOF
