1.5. Types of Packages
The different types of packages are determined by who wrote them and by where they lay in the layers of PL/SQL code. As we mentioned earlier, the lowest-level and therefore most broadly available packages are the builtin packages, provided by Oracle Corporation. The next level of packages are the prebuilt packages, written by a third party and made available to you for inclusion in your applications. Finally, there are packages you build yourself.
1.5.1. Builtin Packages
Table 1.1 shows a partial list of builtin packages provided by Oracle Corporation. Unless otherwise noted, these packages are available in PL/SQL Release 2.1 and beyond. Most of these packages are installed by default when you create a database instance. In some cases, you may have to grant execute privileges on specific packages (such as DBMS_LOCK and DBMS_SQL) in order to make them available to your user community.
| Package Name | Description |
|---|---|
| DBMS_ALERT | Provides support for notification of database events on an asynchronous basis. Registers a process with an alert and then waits for a signal from that alert. |
| DBMS_DDL | Provides a programmatic access to some of the SQL DDL statements. |
| DBMS_JOB | Used to submit and manage regularly scheduled jobs for execution inside the database. |
| DBMS_LOCK | Allows users to create their own locks using the Oracle Lock Management (OLM) services in the database. |
| DBMS_MAIL | Offers an interface to Oracle ... |
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