Hi all -

Helen - you answered previously to this stating that connection is a
"client thang" (I didn't know you were from the texan part of oz ;-))

but ... if I was to do the following (pseudocode only):

within SP:

call my_connect_UDF ...
if UDF = 0 THEN
SUCCESS;
else
raise EXCEPTION;

within udflib.c:

my_connect_UDF ()
{

if (system("connect_to_other_db") != 0)
return failed_connection;
else
return success;
}

I will be attempting the above on Monday (too late now) ... do you
envisage any problems ?

thanks
bill