Thanks Mark. I guess I've just been lucky to never have such a need so far. In 10g there is a Memory Access Mode provided out of the box for hanging situations so maybe that will lessen the need to create custom direct-SGA access code. I've never tested it out yet so not sure how well it works. ________________________________ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Powell, Mark D Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 10:02 AM To: Oracle Discussion List Subject: RE: reading the SGA from my own program The primary point of directly reading shared memory is that by doing so you bypass Oracle.