=head1 NAME

extproc_perl - Oracle Perl Procedure Library

=head1 SYNOPSIS

=head2 FUNCTION SYNTAX

=over 4

select perl('sub1','1','2') from dual;

=back

=head2 PROCEDURE SYNTAX

=over 4

exec perl('sub2','arg1');

=back

=head1 DESCRIPTION

extproc_perl enables Oracle stored procedures and functions to be written
in Perl.  It uses Oracle 8's external procedure interface to create Perl
interpreters on the fly to execute Perl subroutines.  Code is stored in
a central "bootstrap" file that is interpreted after each interpreter is
initialized.  In the current implementation of Oracle external procedures,
the Perl interpreter is persistent for the life of a client session.  This
has the effect of keeping both interpreted code and data in memory for the
life of that particular session.

=head1 MODULES

The Oracle external procedure process and DynaLoader do not work well
together.  In fact, DynaLoader doesn't work at all in this environment.
Therefore, in order to use dynamically loaded modules like Socket, hooks for
each module need to be compiled into the extproc_perl shared library.  This
means that for each module you want to use, you must declare it at build time.
The Makefile.PL file provides gives you the option of declaring these modules.
Note that this restriction does not apply to Perl-only modules, but it's safe
to declare them as well during this process -- they will be ignored.

ExtProc is a module that is statically linked into the extproc_perl object.
It provides several functions that interact with the Oracle database itself.
See the ExtProc(3) manpage for details.

=head1 SPECIAL SUBROUTINES

The following subroutines are reserved for extproc_perl, and can be called
like any other Perl subroutine from Oracle.

=over 4

=item _flush()

Destroys Perl interpreter and all Perl data.  A new interpreter will be started
for the next query.

=item _version()

Reports the version of the currently loaded extproc_perl.

=back

=head1 AUTHOR

Jeff Horwitz <jeff@smashing.org>

=head1 SEE ALSO

perl(1), perlembed(1), ExtProc(3)

=cut
