Howdy all, I have a support tech telling me that: alter system set events '6500 trace name processstate level 10'; will NOT produce the same trace file as setting: event= "6500 trace name processstate level 10" in the init.ora and bouncing the 9.2.0.5.0 instance. The tech's unable to explain what the difference is, however. I tried testing this by setting event 1652 as above and running a cartesian product with an ORDER BY. The trace was created just fine from what I can see. I can't justify bouncing a production instance because a tech says so (and no way in hell I will without explanation). Anyone have any ideas what the difference might be, if any? TIA! Rich -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l