PL/SQL: Exiting to Operating System?

Greetings:

I'm kinda stumped with a question regarding PL/SQL scripts and how to exit to the OS when they are run using SQL*Plus. I'm writing some PL/SQL scripts that need to be run directly from the OS from a shell script and once they've run, control needs to return to the OS to continue processing the shell script. I am running the scripts using the

following:

sqlplus myname/mypswd_at_mydb @myscript.sql

I've noticed if I write a "pure" SQL script (i.e. no PL stuff) like a SELECT / INSERT / DELETE statement, I can put an EXIT statement as the last line and it works fine.

But, when I have to use PL constructs for variables, if-then-else, etc.,

I cannot use EXIT because it is reserved for exiting a loop. I've tried

with the RETURN statement but that only returns me to the SQL> prompt. Any information on this will be greatly appreciated.

Michael A. Casillas Received on Tue Aug 19 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT