Re: Tablespace export ???? how ???

First up, I guess an apology/explanation is in order.

I ceratinly didn't intend anything I wrote to suggest either that Nuno's method would not work - It will. Nor am I in a position to know how good Nuno's documentation is, or how well any site he has worked at keeps it. I am more than happy to accept everything he says about the quality of his work.

My public 'wondering' and I did chose that word, is more of a matter of philosophy.

ISTM that replacing views that make Oracle utilities work is at least in its widest sense 'hacking'. In the same way the data dictionary or parts of it are defined in sql.bsq change this and you are IMO and however minorly (is that a word) hacking the data dictionary. *IF* you know what you are doing, and to reiterate it is abundantly clear from Nuno's posts that he does, then modifying these scripts to get behaviour you desire will work for you.

I ,personally, wouldn't recommend however this general type of fix in a public forum (I guess unless there really is no alternative). In the same way I am not a fan of recommending people edit the window registry manually. It too is a relatively straightforward procedure and the registry isn't exactly a tricky structure to understand. However it also has the potential to leave your system unusable and so therefore acxts as a red rag to tech support people (who have a hard enough job anyway).

In other words my general principle is to only recommend by the book procedures, especially where there is a good likelihood that the procedure will be picked up by someone who does not have a clear understanding of what they are doing.

Now the alternative view is that people should carefully read what they are being recommended to do, understand it fully and then document it. If we assume that everyone will do this and that they are prepared for any unforseen circumstances then they should have access to all the tricks in the book not just the official ones. There are after all no elite gurus with access to hidden magic in this industry, there are just people at different levels of knowledge and skill. This is a perfectly reasonable viewpoint, I just don't share it.

I hope that is a clear statement of where I'm coming from. AS I also hope is clear I have no beef at all with Nuno's advice - it will work and will give the desired outcome. So I unreservedly apologize if i have given offence or cast aspersions on the quality of Nuno's contributions, they are as always of the highest order, I just have a philosophical difference about what types of advice is appropriate in a public forum for people of unknown skill and comprehension.

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Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
Audit Commission UK