Even though a number of articles and blog posts have already been written on this topic (e.g. on Pete Finnigan’s site I found references dating back from 2003), from time to time I’m still asked “How to trace predicates generated by VPD?”. Hence, here’s yet another blog post about this topic…

Let’s setup the scene before explaining how you can do it:

  • The user named CHA owns the schema created with the script ?/sqlplus/demo/demobld.sql.
  • The data stored in the EMP table is the following:
SQL> SELECT * FROM emp;

     EMPNO ENAME      JOB              MGR HIREDATE         SAL       COMM     DEPTNO
---------- ---------- --------- ---------- --------- ---------- ---------- ----------
      7369 SMITH      CLERK           7902 17-DEC-80        800                    20
      7499 ALLEN      SALESMAN        7698 20-FEB-81       1600        300         30
      7521 WARD       SALESMAN        7698 22-FEB-81       1250        500         30
      7566 JONES      MANAGER         7839 02-APR-81       2975                    20
      7654 MARTIN     SALESMAN        7698 28-SEP-81       1250       1400         30
      7698 BLAKE      MANAGER         7839 01-MAY-81       2850                    30
      7782 CLARK      MANAGER         7839 09-JUN-81       2450                    10
      7788 SCOTT      ANALYST         7566 09-DEC-82       3000                    20
      7839 KING       PRESIDENT            17-NOV-81       5000                    10
      7844 TURNER     SALESMAN        7698 08-SEP-81       1500          0         30
      7876 ADAMS      CLERK           7788 12-JAN-83       1100                    20
      7900 JAMES      CLERK           7698 03-DEC-81        950                    30
      7902 FORD       ANALYST         7566 03-DEC-81       3000                    20
      7934 MILLER     CLERK           7782 23-JAN-82       1300                    10
  • The data stored in the EMP table is protected by a VPD predicate created with the following commands:
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION emp_restrict (p_schema IN VARCHAR2, p_table IN VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2 AS
  2  BEGIN
  3    RETURN '''' || sys_context('userenv','session_user') || ''' = ename';
  4  END emp_restrict;
  5  /

SQL> execute dbms_rls.add_policy('CHA','EMP','EMP_POLICY','CHA','EMP_RESTRICT');
  • Because of the VPD predicate, different users see different rows. Here an example:
SQL> connect scott

SQL> SELECT * FROM cha.emp;

     EMPNO ENAME      JOB              MGR HIREDATE         SAL       COMM     DEPTNO
---------- ---------- --------- ---------- --------- ---------- ---------- ----------
      7788 SCOTT      ANALYST         7566 09-DEC-82       3000                    20

SQL> connect clark

SQL> SELECT * FROM cha.emp;

     EMPNO ENAME      JOB              MGR HIREDATE         SAL       COMM     DEPTNO
---------- ---------- --------- ---------- --------- ---------- ---------- ----------
      7782 CLARK      MANAGER         7839 09-JUN-81       2450                    10

If the function used for the VPD policy is simple and does generate a predicate that can be correctly parsed, to view the predicate it is enough to give a look to the output of the dbms_xplan package. The following SQL statements illustrate this:

SQL> SELECT * FROM table(dbms_xplan.display_cursor(sql_id=>'dmc3z4t0u57y1', format=>'basic predicate'));

EXPLAINED SQL STATEMENT:
------------------------
SELECT * FROM cha.emp

Plan hash value: 3956160932

----------------------------------
| Id  | Operation         | Name |
----------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT  |      |
|*  1 |  TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMP  |
----------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------

   1 - filter("ENAME"='SCOTT')

Another possibility, if you have access to the V$VPD_POLICY view, is to execute a query like the following one:

SQL> SELECT predicate FROM v$vpd_policy WHERE sql_id = 'dmc3z4t0u57y1';

PREDICATE
----------------------
'SCOTT' = ename

However, in case you want to see the whole SQL statement or the predicate generated by the VPD policy leads to an ORA-28113 (policy predicate has error), there is no documented way I’m aware of to display the generated predicate. One of the undocumented ways to do it is to use the event 10730. Note that the event generates a trace file containing the information we are looking for in such situations. Here is an example:

  • Enable the event:
SQL> ALTER SESSION SET events '10730 trace name context forever, level 1';
  • Run the query that, for example, leads to an error (note that to generate the ORA-28113 I modified the EMP_RESTRICT function…):
SQL> SELECT * FROM cha.emp;
SELECT * FROM cha.emp
                  *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-28113: policy predicate has error
  • Check the trace file generated by the database engine (note that the V$DIAG_INFO view is available as of 11g only):
SQL> SELECT value FROM v$diag_info WHERE name = 'Default Trace File';

VALUE
---------------------------------------------------------------------
/u00/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/dba112/DBA112/trace/DBA112_ora_31964.trc

SQL> host tail -10 /u00/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/dba112/DBA112/trace/DBA112_ora_31964.trc
-------------------------------------------------------------
Error information for ORA-28113:
Logon user     : SCOTT
Table/View     : CHA.EMP
Policy name    : EMP_POLICY
Policy function: CHA.EMP_RESTRICT
RLS view  :
SELECT  "EMPNO","ENAME","JOB","MGR","HIREDATE","SAL","COMM","DEPTNO" FROM "CHA"."EMP"   "EMP" WHERE ('SCOTT' = enamee)
ORA-00904: "ENAMEE": invalid identifier
-------------------------------------------------------------

As you can see, the trace file contains not only the whole SQL statement but also the reason for the ORA-28113 error.