Re: cannot delete entry from spfile

From: Howard J. Rogers <hjr_at_dizwell.com>
Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2004 09:35:13 +1100
Message-ID: <41acf5a2$0$12650$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>

Steve Howard wrote:
> "Howard J. Rogers" <hjr_at_dizwell.com> wrote in message news:<41acb3ef$0$9390$afc38c87_at_news.optusnet.com.au>...
>

>>Ed Stevens wrote:
>>case!).
>>
>>In a world where converting to a pfile might not actually remain an 
>>option for ever and ever, it might be a good idea to know how to work 
>>with spfiles 'natively'.
>>
>>Regards
>>HJR

>
>
> I have always just used strings on the spfile, or even opened it in a
> text editor when on Windows. Delete the top line and bottom line,
> IIRC, and you are good to go, after renaming it, of course. I think
> Oracle just puts it in a specific binary format so people won't try to
> bypass the instance change mechanism and munge it directly.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Steve

That's extremely poor practice, Steve. Next thing, people will be opening the spfile in Wordpad, and saving it. And then wondering why the instance won't start... because there *is* an spfile in the default directory... but strangely, Oracle doesn't seem to want to use it.

Oh, I forgot... someone already did that and posted here about it several months ago!

It's not easy to diagnose, either.

And never mind that what you've been doing is unsupported (which might make no difference to you, but may to others).

The reason why Oracle puts it in a specific binary format is so that people don't cack it up. Because the ability of the *instance* to edit the file is what lies at the heart of 10g's automatically self-tuning instance, not to mention such exotica as Data Guard (which also needs to dynamically set and reset log_archive_dest_n parameters amongst others to reflect Data Guard configuration changes you might make).

If you must use text-based init.oras, at least get Oracle to create them for you from the spfile in the supported, predictable and relatively safe fashion: create pfile from spfile.

Oh, and I forgot to make the plug: chapter 6 of my New Features in 9i book deals extensively with the spfile. Details at www.dizwell.com. Just thought I'd mention it. :-)

Regards
HJR Received on Tue Nov 30 2004 - 16:35:13 CST