Not exactly like Unix (better!)... Instead of spooling to a symbol, spool to a logical. I know this works (or did in Oracle8 on VMS), as I used to use it with a DCL CGI script I made to produce graphs from data in Oracle tables. But I don't know how Oracle will treat the filename as part of the logical. Try something like this: $ val_sid = f$trnlnm("ora_sid") $! $ sho sym val_sid $! tmp = "tmp_"+"''val_sid'"+".txt" $! sho sym tmp $ define tmp "tmp_''val_sid'.txt" $ sqlplus "/ as sysdba" spool tmp select '$ STOP/IDENTIFICATION=' || p.spid proc_id from v$session s, v$process . . . . . If that doesn't work as you expect, you could also try to append a colon onto the spool command ("spool tmp:"). Like I said, I'm not sure how Oracle will deal with the filename in the logical. It's been awhile! Let us know if that works. GL! Rich ________________________________ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Reidy, Ron Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 11:13 AM To: barb.baker@xxxxxxxxx; oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: spool to symbol in vms Is this like Unix? If so ... spool ${tmp} -- Ron Reidy Lead DBA Array BioPharma, Inc. ________________________________ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Barbara Baker Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 10:06 AM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: spool to symbol in vms OpenVMS 7.3-1 Oracle 9.2.0.4 Hi, all. Does anyone know how to spool to a symbol in vms? Here's my dcl. I want to spool to the file identified by the symbol tmp. $ val_sid = f$trnlnm("ora_sid") $! $ sho sym val_sid $ tmp = "tmp_"+"''val_sid'"+".txt" $ sho sym tmp $ sqlplus "/ as sysdba" spool 'tmp select '$ STOP/IDENTIFICATION=' || p.spid proc_id from v$session s, v$process . . . . . Thanks for any help! Barb