FAQ - Etiquette - and how to get an answer

From: Jonathan Lewis <jonathan_at_jlcomp.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 11:47:43 +0100
Message-ID: <u8udnTh9QKPRiNvZRVnyhw@bt.com>

There are several FAQs about the Oracle database scattered around the Internet, and many ways of finding answers to the shorter questions about Oracle very quickly.

The following list is a suggestion of where you might find answers to questions that you feel should have an obvious answer.

The Co-operative Oracle Users' FAQ
http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/faq/ind_faq.html

One of the archives and entry points for this news group (with a lag of that may be several hours) is: http://www.google.com

select the GROUPS tab
then work through the list to

comp -> databases -> oracle
then pick the most appropriate of the four available.

If you post through this Google (or similar) facility please remember that there are four subgroups: server, misc, tools, marketplace, and post to the most appropriate one.

A search engine for searching the manuals for current versions of Oracle software

    8.1.7,  9.0.1,  9.2 and 10.1 for the database,
    9.0.2,  9.0.4 , 10.1.2 for the application server,
    9.0.3 and 9.0.4 for Collaboration suite

exists at
http://tahiti.oracle.com

Oracle technology Network (free registration) which includes documentation, free limited use software, and sample code fragments
http://technet.oracle.com

Oracle Metalink (requires a support licence) contains a number of forums, a searchable knowledge base, and a searchable bug database.
http://www.oracle.com/support/metalink/index.html

IDEA - every recent release has a 'Known Issues' document describing new bugs. Used the advanced search with the EXACT PHRASE option to search for

Known issues specific
This will give you a list relevant documents - as at the time of writing (with apologies for the no-doubt messy formatting):

        Subject Doc ID Modified Date Product Platform Type
      10.1.0.3 Patch Set - Known Issues
     280554.1 09-MAR-2005 Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition Generic README
      9.2.0.5 Patch Set - Known Issues
     263792.1 09-MAR-2005 Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition Generic README
      9.2.0.6 Patch Set - Known Issues
     283899.1 09-MAR-2005 Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition Generic README
      9.2.0.4 Patch Set - Known Issues
     245984.1 18-FEB-2005 Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition Generic README
      10.1.0.2 Base Release - Known Issues
     263729.1 18-FEB-2005 Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition Generic README
      9.2.0.2 Patch Set - Known Issues
     246010.1 02-NOV-2004 Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition Generic README
      9.2.0.3 Patch Set - Known Issues
     246001.1 02-NOV-2004 Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition Generic README

Thomas Kyte is an Oracle employee who writes the popular Ask Tom column in the Oracle magazine, and maintains a website holding many real-life questions and answers at:
http://asktom.oracle.com

Steve Adams is a highly respected member of the Oracle community and his website, apart from the wealth of information it contains, also has a search engine which indexes a select sub-set of the Oracle-related websites that are on the Internet. http://www.ixora.com.au

For Security-related mattered, Pete Finnigan is probably the best starting point. Apart from writing a book and several articles about Oracle Security, he maintains an annotated listing of references to other web articles on the subject.
http://www.petefinnigan.com/orasec.htm

If you want to help the newsgroup help you then:

Check at least the first two resources above before posting your message. They may contain a discussion document that gives you more help than a direct answer to your specific question could. It is worth mentioning the resources you have checked as a lead-in to your question.
Quote the Oracle version number, and operating system that you are running on. Answers that are good for version 8 may be 2nd-rate for version 9 and completely stupid for version 10.
If you say that something "doesn't work", that doesn't give anyone a clue about the problem. Always quote any error messages you get, and tell us a bit about the environment (e.g. SQL*Plus, VB, pl/sql called from Pro*C).
Feedback is important - if you find a good answer to the question you asked, post it to the newsgroup. (If it is an article on a website, email me below with the question, site, comment, and the URL and I can add it as a reference to the FAQ).
If someone has got you out of a hole, it's quite a nice touch to thank them (possibly by direct mail) And if they haven't managed to help, it's quite useful for everyone to explain what went wrong when you tried their solution.
RTFM is not a civilised answer. Although there may be questions that you feel deserve this response, it would be better to phrase it as a URL or other pointer to the appropriate bit of the manual.
If you have used one of the search methods above, and subsequently see a question asked on the same topic, please consider posting the address of the resource to the person asking the question.

--

Regards

Jonathan Lewis
http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk

Received on Wed Apr 19 2006 - 05:47:43 CDT