Oracle: API for dealing with TNS file?

Question

Is there an API that will read a TNS file and present it in some easy-to-use data structure?

I would like to get a list of all my TNS entries. This works but is not particularly elegant!

grep '^[a-zA-Z].*=' /etc/tnsnames.ora | sed 's/[ =].*//'

Answer 1

Another, not very simple, solution is ANTLR. You can use ANTLR to parse tnsnames.ora. On ANTLR Grammar List page you will find grammar which can parse tnsnames.ora, sqlnet.ora and listener.ora

Answer 2

I'm not sure if TNSPing would be more useful to you. It will output like:

TNS Ping Utility for Linux: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
on 01-MAR-2009 02:02:33

Copyright (c) 1997, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Used parameter files:

Used TNSNAMES adapter to resolve the alias
Attempting to contact (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)
(HOST = myhostname)(PORT = 1521)) (CONNECT_DATA = (SID = mydb)))
OK (80 msec)

The problem is you must pass it the TNS name to ping, which may or may not be possible in your scenario.