I have a process as outlined below ... Loop 1. dequeue a message from a specified queue. 2. message is of type CLOB. 3. in another loop, use dbms_lob.read to read 1024 characters from the lob at a time. 4. using utl_raw and utl_tcp send each chunk across network. 5. loop back to the dbms_lob.read call until done. End loop; Now, there are no following query shows number of extents used in v$sort_usage growing ... we send messages continuously few a minute. SELECT s1.username, s1.sid, s1.serial#, s2.contents, s1.sql_address, s2.extents FROM v$session s1, v$sort_usage s2 WHERE s1.saddr = s2.session_addr order by 6 desc / The question is if I am not performing any queries in my code, why should my usage of TEMP be increasing?? Maybe I am missing something here, but can't put my finger on it. This process last week failed with ora-1652, so I am trying to investigate that as well. This is all on a 9204 dual node RAC instance. Raj ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- Rajendra dot Jamadagni at nospamespn dot com All Views expressed in this email are strictly personal. select standard_disclaimer from company_requirements; QOTD: Any clod can have facts, having an opinion is an art ! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------