Sorry for the late reply and HTH. Early in my career I hacked up a shell script to do what you mentioned. The script fires up SQLPlus in the background and kills it after N seconds if it doesn't complete. The sample below simulates a 30 second delay. The default timeout is 10 seconds but it's show below overridden with 15 to compensate for any startup latency. Regards Tony APonte cat run_sql_and_kill_after_10_seconds_if_not_complete.sh #!/bin/sh set -x # Establish run-time environment. ORACLE_SID=3D<<<>>>>; export ORACLE_SID ORAENV_ASK=3DNO; export ORAENV_ASK . oraenv #- # AlarmHandler() { echo "Got SIGALARM, cmd took too long." KillSubProcs exit 14 } # KillSubProcs() { kill ${CHPROCIDS:-$!} if [ $? -eq 0 ] ; then echo "Sub-processes killed." ; exit 1 fi } # SetTimer() { DEF_TOUT=3D${1:-10}; if [ $DEF_TOUT -ne 0 ] ; then sleep $DEF_TOUT && kill -14 $$ & CHPROCIDS=3D"$CHPROCIDS $!" TIMERPROC=3D$! fi } # UnsetTimer() { kill $TIMERPROC } # # main() # trap AlarmHandler 14 # SetTimer 15 # sqlplus internal/ <<EOF & select * from dual; exec DBMS_LOCK.SLEEP(30); exit; EOF # CHPROCIDS=3D"$CHPROCIDS $!" wait $! UnsetTimer echo "All done." exit 0 -----Original Message----- From: Mercadante, Thomas F [mailto:thomas.mercadante@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2004 8:09 AM To: 'oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: Database Link Timer All, =20 I have the following query in a stored package: =20 select 1 into loc_variables from dual@databaselink <mailto:dual@databaselink> ; =20 What I am doing is checking the availabilty of the remote database periodically. The bad news is that we sometimes have network problems. If the above would fail, then I trap the error and move on. But sometimes, it is just painfully slow (like it doesn't fail but hangs for a long time). =20 Is there some way I can put a timer on the above that says if it can't complete the query in 10 seconds, then fail? =20 thanks =20 Tom Mercadante=20 Oracle Certified Professional=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------