dbms_output in PL/SQL

I have PL/SQL which process about 300 thousand rows. While processing I display some messages which notifies the user how much it process so far. Problem is it displays all the messages after everything is processed and not as it is processing.

I have following statements before excuting the PL/SQL.

sqlplus -s $MAF_ORA_USER <<!
prompt Executing PL/SQL to load MTA_TEMP table.
set serveroutput on ;
set flush on ;
exec load_mta_lookup;


Any comments ?

thaks,
Divakara.

That's the way it works.

dbms_output manages a buffer that is contained in the SGA of the database instance. The buffer-size can be controlled via dbms_output.enable. The procedure dbms_output.put_line puts a single line into the buffer, whereas dbms_output.get_line gets a single line from the buffer.

In SQL*Plus, if serveroutput is set to "on" , SQL*Plus gets all lines from the buffer after the execution of a PL/SQL program, DML statement or anonymous block.

Bye
Michael