Thanks a lot for your reply. Would like to know why the DBUA complains about CONTROL FILE (Unable to identify Control File) ? I have the control_file parameter set in ? format. Any workarround??? On 10/17/05, Ric Van Dyke <Ric.Van.Dyke@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > 1 - The * is for any instance. If you had a RAC setup it is possible for > each instance in the RAC to have some (not all) of the parameters set to > different values, if they did then the parameter would like like: > <instance name>.<parameter name> > 2 - The ? is a short cut for ORACLE_HOME > > Ric Van Dyke > Ric.van.Dyke@xxxxxxxxxx > ------------------------------- > Hotsos Symposium 2006 <http://www.hotsos.com/portal/events/SYM06>, March > 5-9 > Be there... > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From: *DBA Deepak > *Sent: *Mon Oct 17 07:08:01 EDT 2005 > *To: *oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > *Subject: *PFILE from SPFILE > > Hi All, > When I created a pfile from spfile the pfile has lines like the > following.... > *.background_dump_dest='?\admin\ > I have a few doubts regarding that. > 1> Why **.* is there before each line. > 2> Why the locations of the dumps as well as the control files have > *?\*prefixed. > 3> Even when i use sho parameter control_file it shows the ? > Please help me in understanding the above. > > -- > Regards, > > Deepak > Oracle DBA > > -- Regards, Deepak Oracle DBA