Yes, This worked for me, and it is very simple. "%d" simply expands to the name of the database and everything is taken care of. I asked myself how likely it is that it will not work in a future version of Oracle. I think it will be small because the %d format returns the database name and this is very useful information. Thanks to everybody for your contributions. Sam Bootsma Oracle Database Administrator Information Technology Services George Brown College Phone: 416-415-5000 x4933 Fax: 416-415-4836 E-mail: sbootsma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:sbootsma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> ________________________________ From: jheinrich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jheinrich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jason Heinrich Sent: February 25, 2008 1:17 PM To: Sam Bootsma Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Can I pass a parameter into an RMAN Script? How about '/san2/orabackup/%d/CTRL_%d_%T_%p_%s%t'? On 2/25/08, Sam Bootsma <sbootsma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Hello all, Oracle 10.2.0.3, Enterprise Edition, on AIX 5.3. In our RMAN backup scripts for our AAA database we have several format lines that look like: format '/san2/orabackup/AAA/CTRL_%d_%T_%p_%s%t'; The same lines for our BBB database looks like: format '/san2/orabackup/BBB/CTRL_%d_%T_%p_%s%t'; Because of this difference in the format lines I need to create and maintain separate RMAN scripts for each database. If I could pass a parameter into the RMAN script, then I could have just one RMAN script and call it with a parameter specifying the database name. Can anybody tell me if this is possible? Or must I continue to create separate RMAN scripts for each database I wish to backup? I checked the Oracle docs, but could not find anything that spoke to what I want to do. Thanks, Sam Bootsma Oracle Database Administrator Information Technology Services George Brown College Phone: 416-415-5000 x4933 Fax: 416-415-4836 E-mail: sbootsma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:sbootsma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> -- Jason Heinrich