Hi, I know that this was logged as an enhancement back in version 8.1.7 but as with many others there has been no progress ....... Also IIRC the only way to find out if a session is using a stored outline and its category is using oradebug as illustrated in https://www.metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/f?p=200:27:1182261800065093776::::p27_id,p27_show_header,p27_show_help:613682.992,1,1 HTH, Fairlie "Schultz, Charles" <sac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: We have begun exploring the use of outlines, and one of the things I stumbled upon was that you have set "use_stored_outlines". As we discuss this feature and talk about ramifications, we have discovered that there is a wee bit of overhead in a shop with many databases. Each time we clone or bounce a database, we would have to turn outlines back on. Of course, there is the option of creating a database trigger that does this automagically, but it does make me wonder why it is not an init parameter. I assume there is a good reason that Oracle decided on this. Anyone happen to know the details? PS - I do realize that this parameter can also have other values besides TRUE and FALSE. I am hoping to focus this question on the boolean values, however. Unless the non-boolean values are part of the decision making process. charles schultz oracle dba aits - adsd university of illinois Fairlie Rego Senior Oracle Consultant Optus Telecommunications www.optus.com.au --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.