Sql*plus always returns exit code 0?

Question

Whenever I run a sql script using Sql*plus and check for $?, I get 0 even when the script wasn't succesful.

Example

#$ sqlplus user/password@instance @script.sql


SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Wed Aug 7 14:20:44 2013

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.


Connected to:
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.8.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options
JServer Release 9.2.0.8.0 - Production

     v$dataf-ile d,
            *
ERROR at line 6:
ORA-00933: SQL command not properly ended


Disconnected from Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.8.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options
JServer Release 9.2.0.8.0 - Production
$ echo $?
0
$

I would like it to return a non-zero value when an error occurs.

How can I achieve that ?

Answer 1

You have to explicitly tell sqlplus to do that, in your script. Basically, there are two statements that you can use:

• WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT SQL.SQLCODE
• WHENEVER OSERROR EXIT

For example:

WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT SQL.SQLCODE
begin
  SELECT COLUMN_DOES_NOT_EXIST FROM DUAL;
END;
/

And for OS errors:

WHENEVER OSERROR EXIT FAILURE
START no_such_file

For more information, see this and that.

Hope it helps. Good Luck!