ALTER PACKAGE

The ALTER PACKAGE statement is used to explicitly recompile the package header and (or) body.

Because all objects in a package are stored as a unit, the ALTER PACKAGE statement will recompile all package objects. You cannot use the ALTER PROCEDURE or ALTER FUNCTION statements to recompile only part of a package, such as a stored procedure or function.

Prerequisites

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

Syntax

The syntax of alter_package is as follows:

ALTER PACKAGE [ schema. ] package_name
{ package_compile_clause} ;

where package_compile_clause has the following syntax:

COMPILE [ DEBUG ] [ compiler_parameters_clause ... ] [ REUSE SETTINGS ]

Semantics

Examples

The following example explicitly recompiles the specification and body of the sys.obdemo_pack package.

ALTER PACKAGE obdemo_pack COMPILE PACKAGE;

If the database does not encounter any compilation errors while recompiling the specification and body of obdemo_pack, the package becomes valid. Subsequently, the sys user can call or reference all package objects declared in the specification without needing to recompile them at runtime.

If recompiling obdemo_pack results in compilation errors, the database returns an error message, and the package becomes invalid. The database also invalidates all objects that depend on obdemo_pack. If these objects are referenced without being explicitly recompiled, the database will implicitly recompile them at runtime.

The following example recompiles the body of the obdemo_pack package in the SYS schema:

ALTER PACKAGE sys.obdemo_pack COMPILE BODY;

If the database does not encounter any compilation errors while recompiling the body of obdemo_pack, the body becomes valid. Subsequently, the sys user can call or reference all package objects declared in the specification without needing to recompile them at runtime.

If recompiling the body results in compilation errors, the database returns an error message, and the body remains invalid.

Since this statement recompiles the body, rather than the specification of obdemo_pack, the database does not invalidate dependent objects.