TOra, The Linux Alternative To TOAD
One of my New Year Resolutions is to move my work laptop over to Linux, to be more in sync with Oracle's development effort and to benefit from the extra performance that you get from running Oracle on a Unix platform. One of the things that's put me off in the past is the thought of losing TOAD, but I've just come across an open-source alternative that runs on Linux and Windows that seems a suitable replacement.
TOra is a Toolkit for Oracle which aims to help the DBA or developer of database application, and features a PL/SQL debugger, SQL worksheet with syntax highlighting, DB browser and a comprehensive set of DBA tools.
The TOra project is maintained on Sourceforge and comes bundled on the RedHat installation CDs, and is free for use on Linux (Windows users need to purchase a commercial license)
Some of the features included with TOra include
- SQL Worksheet with syntax highlight and code completion.
- Database browser with content editor and data filter.
- PL/SQL Debugger with stack trace and watches.
- Server tuning
- Security Manager
- Storage Manager, with Extent and Storage Lists
- Session Manager with I/O and Wait Stats
- Rollback Manager
- SGA Trace & Long Operations Browser with Explain Plan
- Statistics Manager
TOra is released under the GPL and there's an active community built around the product, with discussion lists, a comprehensive user manual and the source code available at the project CVS repository.
UPDATE: Michael Wexler contacted me about another TOAD alternative for Linux:
"Not quite as impressive as Tora but catching up quickly. AquaDataStudio at http://www.aquafold.com/ is not open source, but is completely java based, and is very, very friendly with Oracle. The author is extremely responsive in making changes and enhancements. Like Tora, free for personal use, but commercial (now) have to pay. And, since its all java, all you need is a JVM and the ability to use JDBC or other Java database connections."
Thanks Michael!