DDL::Oracle - A Perl tool to reverse engineer the DDL of Oracle  
              objects, by Richard Sutherland.

Copyright (c) 2000  Richard Sutherland, United States

See COPYRIGHT section in Oracle.pm for usage and distribution rights.

QUICK START GUIDE:

    DDL::Oracle requires the DBI and DBD::Oracle modules to talk to the 
    database.  It is designed to reverse engineer DDL for Oracle 8i 
    instances, but parts might work on earlier Oracle releases.

    Read the DBI README then Build/test/install the DBI by doing
	    perl Makefile.PL
	    make
	    make test
	    make install
    Then delete the source directory tree since it's no longer needed.
    Use the 'perldoc DBI' command to read the DBI documentation.

    Fetch the DBD::Oracle driver module and unpack it.  Install it the 
    same way by doing
	    perl Makefile.PL
	    make
	    make test
	    make install

The DBI.pm file contains the DBI specification and other documentation.
PLEASE READ IT. It'll save you asking questions on the mailing list
which you will be told are already answered in the documentation.  If you 
cannot connect to Oracle, then your problem is with your Perl, DBI or 
DBD::Oracle installation(s).  Please solve these problems before reporting 
problems with DDL::Oracle.

For more information and to keep informed about progress on DDL::Oracle, you 
can join the mailing list via 

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/ddl-oracle/

See also http://www.perl.com/CPAN/


BEFORE BUILDING, TESTING AND INSTALLING DDL::Oracle you will need to:

    Build, test and install Perl 5 (preferably 5.004_04 or later).
    It is very important to test it and actually install it!
    (You can use "Configure -Dprefix=..." to build a private copy.)
    Build, test and istall the DBI and DBD::Oracle modules.

BUILDING

    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make test
    make install (if the tests look okay)

IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS:

If you can't fix it yourself, please post details to:

     ddl-oracle-users@lists.sourceforge.net.  

I'm on the mailing list, so I'll see the message.  Please include:

1. A complete log of a complete build, e.g.:

    perl Makefile.PL           (do a make realclean first)
    make
    make test
    make install

2. Full details of which version of Oracle you're using.

3. The output of perl -V

3. If you get a core dump, try to include a stack trace from it.
   (Try installing the Devel::CoreStack module to get a stack trace.)
   If the stack trace mentions XS_DynaLoader_dl_load_file then rerun
   make test after setting the environment variable PERL_DL_DEBUG to 2.

Please don't post problems to comp.lang.perl.* or perl5-porters.
This software is supported via the ddl-oracle-users mailing list.  For 
more information and to keep informed about progress you can join the
mailing list via http://sourceforge.net/projects/ddl-oracle/.  On the 
SourceForge site for this project, there is also an Open Discussion 
forum (where you are encouraged to submit suggestions and RFC's) and a 
Bug Tracking list.  

It is important to check that you are using the latest version before
posting. If you're not then I'm *very* likely to simply say "upgrade to
the latest". You would do yourself a favor by upgrading beforehand.

There is pod documentation for using DDL::Oracle in the Oracle.pm file.
From the .../DDL directory, try 'pod2text Oracle.pm'.

Please remember that I'm (hopefully employed and) busy. Try to help 
yourself first, then try to help me help you by following these 
guidelines carefully.  (Note specifically that I'm unlikely to answer a 
question that's answered clearly in the on-line documentation.)

Regards,
Richard Sutherland

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