Oracle SQLPLUS - permission denied on "/dev/null"

[Stephen Keogh]

Oracle 8i 8.1.7.3.0 64bit on HP-UX 11.00 64bit

SQLPLUS
>select 'abc'
2 from dual
;
'AB
---
abc
>edit
Wrote file afiedt.buf
/dev/null: Permission denied
>exit

>ls -l afiedt.buf
-rwxrwxrwx
>ls -l /dev/null
crw-rw-rw-
>cat >/dev/null
abc
Cntrl-d
>
>cat login.sql
...
define _editor=vi
...

Any ideas, suggestions welcome

Steve

[T G Manikandan]

check the permissions for /dev/null

crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 3 0x000002 Jul 10 17:49 /dev/null

[Stephen Keogh]

Thanks for your reply ...

The output from ls -l /dev/null is given in my original posting


Steve

[Thierry Poels_1]

Hi,

hmmmm funny thing going on ...

"edit" in SQL*Plus saves the commands to your editfile (default is afiedt.buf), then uses the defined editor to edit this file and afterwards reads the editfile into the command buffer.

- the save seems to work
- start of the editor probably gives the "Permission denied" error.

Things to check:
- which editor is being used
- editor executable linked to /dev/null??
Have a look in that direction.

good luck,
Thierry.

[T G Manikandan]

set the default editor as vi


EDITOR=vi
export EDITOR

check your permissions of vi

-r-xr-xr-t 6 bin bin 249856 Jan 16 1998 /usr/bin/vi

afiedt.buf is owned by user oracle.

Try also re-creating your /dev/null file

#rm -f /dev/null
#insf -d mm


Thanks

[Stephen Keogh]

Thanks for the replies ...

/home/ke1716>echo $EDITOR
vi
/home/ke1716>ls -l /usr/bin/vi
-r-xr-xr-t root bin
/home/ke1716>ls -l afiedt.buf
-rwxrwxrwx ke1716 other

/home/ke1716>cat login.sql
...
define _editor=vi
...
set sqlprompt '&gname> '

I know the file login.sql is used as my sqlplus prompt is set correctly

I am just a humble User on this machine ( ke1716 ), I don't have the permissions to recreate /dev/null. But if thats what is required I will get it done. But, what about this ...

sqlplus system/manager
>host date
/dev/null: Permission denied

Thanks

Steve

[Thierry Poels_1 · Accepted solution]

BINGO!!!!

Check your SHELL variable! It is set to /dev/null, probably to prevent users to execute OS commands from within an application.

regards,
Thierry.

[Stephen Keogh]

Thanks for the reply

Yes, you are right, my SHELL is /dev/null
>/home/ke1716>echo $SHELL
/dev/null
>/home/ke1716>export SHELL=/usr/bin/ksh
SHELL is read only

As you suggest, this is some kind of security restriction I was not aware of. I will take this up with our Unix security people.
Points will be awarded, many thanks to all who have helped me today.


Steve