Results for “utl_tcp”

AI-generated from documented ETRM metadata — verify critical details on the linked pages.

Overview

SYS.UTL_TCP is the Oracle-supplied PL/SQL package that provides a native TCP/IP socket interface from within the Oracle Database. In the Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.1 and 12.2.2 environments, this package is a component of the SYS-owned utility layer and is delivered in wrapped (obfuscated) form, as reflected in the ETRM source listing. Within EBS, UTL_TCP enables PL/SQL code to act as a TCP client: it can open outbound socket connections to remote hosts, transmit and receive data as raw bytes or character streams, and manage connection lifecycle. This capability underpins integrations where EBS must communicate with external systems over proprietary or non-HTTP TCP protocols — for example, host-based message queues, print spoolers, third-party payment switches, or middleware listeners that do not expose a database link or web service. The package is classified in the ETRM as OTHER, indicating it is a general-purpose database utility rather than an EBS business API, and it is referenced by five other packages in the documented environment, confirming its role as a shared dependency.

Key Procedures and Functions

The ETRM documents seventeen procedures and functions, which fall into distinct functional groups.

• OPEN_CONNECTION — Establishes a TCP connection to a specified remote host and port, returning a connection handle used by subsequent calls.
• SECURE_CONNECTION — Opens a connection secured with SSL/TLS, used when the remote endpoint requires encrypted transport.
• AVAILABLE — Reports the number of bytes available to be read on an open connection without blocking.
• READ_RAW — Reads a specified number of raw bytes from a connection into a RAW buffer.
• WRITE_RAW — Sends raw byte data over an open connection.
• READ_TEXT — Reads a fixed quantity of character data into a text buffer.
• WRITE_TEXT — Transmits character data over a connection using the database character set.
• READ_LINE — Reads a single line of text terminated by a line delimiter.
• WRITE_LINE — Writes a text line and appends the platform line terminator.
• GET_RAW / GET_TEXT / GET_LINE — Returns raw or textual content, with GET_LINE returning one delimited line at a time.
• GET_TEXT_NCHAR / GET_LINE_NCHAR — Retrieve text using the national character set, for multilingual data streams.
• FLUSH — Forces any buffered outbound data to be transmitted immediately.
• CLOSE_CONNECTION — Terminates a specific open connection and releases its resources.
• CLOSE_ALL_CONNECTIONS — Closes every connection opened within the current session, a necessary cleanup step in pooled or long-running sessions.

Tables Accessed

The ETRM metadata documents no tables referenced by SYS.UTL_TCP, and none are accessed through APPS synonyms. This is consistent with the package's design: it is a stateless, session-level network utility that operates on socket handles held in PL/SQL memory rather than on database tables. Its impact on EBS data is entirely indirect — the bytes sent or received may originate from or be destined for EBS tables, but the package itself performs no SQL against application schema objects.

Usage Notes

UTL_TCP is typically invoked from PL/SQL rather than directly from Oracle Forms or standard concurrent programs, since outbound TCP access from the database server raises network and security considerations. Typical invocation points include custom concurrent programs that publish messages to external systems, database triggers or PL/SQL wrappers that relay data to middleware, and integration packages that depend on UTL_TCP as a lower-level transport. Because the package requires outbound network privileges and is restricted by default through database ACLs (Network ACL configuration), the EBS database administrator must grant the executing schema explicit access to each target host and port. Sessions that open connections should always close them explicitly — CLOSE_CONNECTION or CLOSE_ALL_CONNECTIONS — to avoid leaking file descriptors in the shared EBS database session pool. Given that the package body is wrapped, runtime behavior cannot be inspected in source form; administrators should rely on documented signatures and ACL-based access control when diagnosing connectivity issues in the 12.1.1 and 12.2.2 environments.