Hi All, When I created a pfile from spfile the pfile has lines like the following.... *.background_dump_dest='?\admin\ I have a few doubts regarding that. 1> Why **.* is there before each line. 2> Why the locations of the dumps as well as the control files have *?\*prefixed. 3> Even when i use sho parameter control_file it shows the ? Please help me in understanding the above. -- Regards, Deepak Oracle DBA