RE: RE: Changing dump destinations in init.ora

SPfile is not stored in the database. It is kept in the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory.
Although it is considered to be a binary file, in reality it is just a text file. It has a hashed value stored at the beginning of the file.

• Kirti

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2002 8:58 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Yes, the SPFILE is stored in binary format in the database, but you can sort of work around it. To create a text file from the SPFILE, you can issue:

        CREATE PFILE 'pfilename' FROM SPFILE 'filename';

And vice versa with:

        CREATE SPFILE = 'filename' FROM PFILE = 'pfilename';

When starting the instance, you can also specify an alternate SPFILE:

        SQL> startup pfile=filename

There's also some new syntax for the ALTER SYSTEM command to specify the scope of the change:

        ALTER SYSTEM set parameter = value SCOPE = MEMORY | SPFILE | BOTH; Rich Holland
Guidance Technologies, Inc.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: root_at_fatcity.com [mailto:root_at_fatcity.com] On Behalf Of
> dgoulet_at_vicr.com
> Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 3:43 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: Re:RE: Changing dump destinations in init.ora
>
[...]
> during the discussion on database management it was revealed that init

> files are on the way out, probably in 9i version 2. Their being
replaced
> by an SF file that is humanly unreadable and consequently
unmodifiable.
> Seems we'll have to do all modifications with the assistance of an
alter
> database or alter system command.
> On the plus side, if your starting a database remotely you'll not need
a
> copy of the init.ora locally.

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Author: Deshpande, Kirti
  INET: kirti.deshpande_at_verizon.com

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