SQL & PL/SQL

Hi,

I am not sure which category this goes under so will move it if there is a better suggestion.

I am using the os_command pl/sql and java packages from soruceforge to issue unix commands from pl/sql.

I have it at the point where I can rm, touch files and issue commands such as ls but when I try and issue cat I get the message:

begin
select os_command.exec_clob('/bin/cat /home/oracle/rules/var.txt >/home/oracle/rules/var2.txt') into x from dual;
end;

I get:

/bin/cat: /home/oracle/rules/var.txt: No such file or directory
/bin/cat: >/home/oracle/rules/var2.txt: No such file or directory

Those files are owned by and in group oracle. I can run the command from the terminal and get the correct result.

If I put this command into a shell script and then execute that from pl/sql then I it succeeds.

Is there anything in particular that cat would need?

TIA

Sev