Passwords in Scripts

How are people handling the presence of database passwords in scripts on client machines? I'm talking about Perl, Java, .NET, SQL*Plus and other programs running on Solaris, Linux, and Windows clients which have an Oracle password inside the program or reference a file which has one.

I tried Oracle's password safe problem to see if would fix the problem of having the rman catalog password in backup scripts. The client here is different as it is also another database server. Two things happened, the account under which the Oracle software was installed w could not log on to Oracle is a also an externally identified Oracle without a password. This was due to the authentication being switched from the operating system to the password safe. Not what was wanted. The other thing that happened was that the Context option broke. I could understand that if the indexes were on binary data where an external procedure call needs to be made; however this was on character data, and it happened on two different systems. Is it possible to have both OS and password authentication active simultaneously?

The RMAN connections did work. However the connect sting is simply /. If there are multiple accounts which need this ability on any one instance of Oracle, this does not seem a workable solution.

What are others using as a password escrow system.

Ian

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