Typical! Posted the question and then almost immediately came across the answer: The Solaris escape character is backslash - \ - so preceding each double-quotation mark thus worked: exp \"username/password AS SYSDBA\" ... Hope this is useful to somebody - it certainly had me slapping my forehead! Cheers, Paul > -----Original Message----- > From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx=20 > [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul Vincent > Sent: 16 June 2005 08:11 > To: Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Invoking Export as SYSDBA > =20 > Firstly, many thanks to everyone who gave me advice about=20 > truncating event logs and listener logs - much appreciated. > =20 > I've been experimenting with the various options of Oracle=20 > Import and Export (with Oracle 8i and 9i), and have come=20 > across a strange problem: > =20 > The syntax of imp and exp specifies that you can invoke them=20 > as SYSDBA by starting the statement thus: > =20 > exp username/password AS SYSDBA ... > =20 > but when I try this out on a Solaris system I get: > =20 > LRM-00108: invalid positional parameter value 'as' > =20 > Then I noticed a note in the documentation for Export,=20 > saying that because the string "AS SYSDBA" contains a blank,=20 > most operating systems require the entire string=20 > 'username/password AS SYDBA' be placed in quotation marks or=20 > marked as a literal by some method. It also says the=20 > quotation marks may need to be preceded by an escape character. So I > tried: > =20 > exp "username/password AS SYSDBA" ... > =20 > and still got the LRM-00108 message as before. Now, I've=20 > tried looking in the documentation for anything about escape=20 > characters, but can find nothing.=3D20 > =20 > Can anyone using Oracle under Solaris tell me where I'm=20 > going wrong, please? > =20 > And, yes, I know generally there's no need to ever use the=20 > "as sysdba" > option for import/export, but I'm just experimenting, and=20 > this is a mystery I'd like to clear up. > =20 > Thanks, > =20 > Paul Vincent > DBA > UCE Birmingham > paul.vincent@xxxxxxxxx > =20 > =20 > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > =20 > =20 -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l