ALTER PACKAGE Statement

The ALTER PACKAGE statement explicitly recompiles a package specification, body, or both. Explicit recompilation eliminates the need for implicit runtime recompilation and prevents associated runtime compilation errors and performance overhead.

Because all objects in a package are stored as a unit, the ALTER PACKAGE statement recompiles all package objects. You cannot use the ALTER PROCEDURE statement or ALTER FUNCTION statement to recompile individually a procedure or function that is part of a package.

LNPLS1884Topics

• Prerequisites

• Syntax

• Semantics

• Examples

• Related Topics

Prerequisites

If the package is in the SYS schema, you must be connected as SYSDBA. Otherwise, the package must be in your schema or you must have ALTER ANY PROCEDURE system privilege.

Syntax

LNPLS1389alter_package ::=

LNPLS1390compiler_parameters_clause ::=

Semantics

LNPLS1391schema

Name of the schema containing the package. Default: your schema.

LNPLS1392package

Name of the package to be recompiled.

LNPLS1885COMPILE

Recompiles the package specification, body, or both.

During recompilation, the database drops all persistent compiler switch settings, retrieves them again from the session, and stores them after compilation. To avoid this process, specify REUSE SETTINGS.

LNPLS1886DEBUG

Has the same behavior for a type as it does for a function. See "DEBUG".

LNPLS1394SPECIFICATION

Recompiles only the package specification, whether it is valid or invalid. You might want to recompile a package specification to check for compilation errors after modifying the specification.

When you recompile a package specification, the database invalidates any local objects that depend on the specification, such as procedures that invoke procedures or functions in the package. The body of a package also depends on its specification. If you subsequently reference one of these dependent objects without first explicitly recompiling it, then the database recompiles it implicitly at run time.

LNPLS1395BODY

Recompiles only the package body, whether it is valid or invalid. You might want to recompile a package body after modifying it. Recompiling a package body does not invalidate objects that depend upon the package specification.

When you recompile a package body, the database first recompiles the objects on which the body depends, if any of those objects are invalid. If the database recompiles the body successfully, then the body becomes valid.

LNPLS1396PACKAGE

(Default) Recompiles both the package specification and (if it exists) the package body, whether they are valid or invalid. The recompilation of the package specification and body lead to the invalidation and recompilation of dependent objects as described for SPECIFICATION and BODY.

LNPLS1399REUSE SETTINGS

Has the same behavior for a package as it does for a function. See "REUSE SETTINGS".

LNPLS1398compiler_parameters_clause

Has the same behavior for a package as it does for a function. See the ALTER FUNCTION "compiler_parameters_clause".

Examples

LNPLS1400Recompiling a Package: Examples This statement explicitly recompiles the specification and body of the hr.emp_mgmt package. See "Creating a Package: Example" for the example that creates this package.

ALTER PACKAGE emp_mgmt COMPILE PACKAGE;

If the database encounters no compilation errors while recompiling the emp_mgmt specification and body, then emp_mgmt becomes valid. The user hr can subsequently invoke or reference all package objects declared in the specification of emp_mgmt without runtime recompilation. If recompiling emp_mgmt results in compilation errors, then the database returns an error and emp_mgmt remains invalid.

The database also invalidates all objects that depend upon emp_mgmt. If you subsequently reference one of these objects without explicitly recompiling it first, then the database recompiles it implicitly at run time.

To recompile the body of the emp_mgmt package in the schema hr, issue this statement:

ALTER PACKAGE hr.emp_mgmt  COMPILE BODY;

If the database encounters no compilation errors while recompiling the package body, then the body becomes valid. The user hr can subsequently invoke or reference all package objects declared in the specification of emp_mgmt without runtime recompilation. If recompiling the body results in compilation errors, then the database returns an error message and the body remains invalid.

Because this statement recompiles the body and not the specification of emp_mgmt, the database does not invalidate dependent objects.

Related Topics

• "CREATE PACKAGE Statement"

• "DROP PACKAGE Statement"