> http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/oracleperl/pdbatoolkit/ You could "try" some variation of this.. I do use this code, and it seems to work.. YMMV #!/bin/ksh me=$$ # Ping the database ( ping_database.sh -s ORACLE_SID ) & pingproc=$! ( # Sleep for 60 seconds.. set it accordingly sleep ${TIMEOUT:-60}; echo "Timed out waiting for ping to complete. Please check for " \ "defunct processes: (pingproc: ${pingproc}, me: ${me})"; ps -f; kill -TERM ${pingproc} ${PPID} ${me} $$ >/dev/null 2>&1; ) & sleepproc=$! # Don't wait for the sleep.. or else it wont be cleared later # (and fail everytime) wait ${pingproc}; # This will (hopefully) clear out the sleep counter if the ping returns # before the sleep completes. kill -9 ${sleepproc} ---------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------------------