Curious about dumpsga/mapsga under $ORACLE_HOME/bin

From: Roger Jackson <rjackson1_at_hotkey.net.au>
Date: 11 Aug 2003 17:23:28 -0700
Message-ID: <94614c11.0308111623.743026bf@posting.google.com>

Hi,

While testing Oracle 9iR2 (9.2.0.3) features I came across some executables under $ORACLE_HOME/bin on both our HP and IBM servers.

I'm wondering if anybody can answer the following questions

Is "dumpsga" the same as SQL>oradebug dumpsga? Does anybody know what "mapsga" actually does?

I have being playing around with "mapsga" on our AIX 5L crash and burn server and performed the following steps.

1. set the environment variable DUMPSGA_DIR=/tmp
2. dumpsga which produces a directory "Aug_12_09:37:10_2003" with the following files
   -rw-rw---- 1 oracle dba 453296128 Aug 12 09:37 0
   -rw-rw---- 1 oracle dba 832 Aug 12 09:37 diagmdata
   
3. strings -a diagmdata /tmp/Aug_12_09:37:10_2003 /opt/oracle/v9.2.0 ORA920

    strings -a 0 (obviously to large to list here...)

4. Shutdown the ORA920 database

5. mapsga Aug_12_09:37:10_2003

   Oracle SGA Mapper

---

   ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oracle/v9.2.0
   ORACLE_SID=ORA920
   DUMPSGA_DIR=/tmp
   Mapping SGA dump located in = /tmp/Aug_12_09:37:10_2003    kgsfmi_ at address 0x6e00. Value is 0    kgsfmi_ at address 0x6e00. Reset to 0    Hit <RETURN> to continue

6. Startup the ORA920 database

I have not found any documentation on these binaries so I'm assuming these are undocumented features and only used by Oracle Support.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Roger. Received on Mon Aug 11 2003 - 19:23:28 CDT