My apologies, you are correct. I wasn¹t paying close enough attention to the statement. Sorry to spread my confusion. On 4/19/06 11:09 AM, Radoulov, Dimitre wrote: >> > Contrary to its syntax, this command does not actually backup the >> > controlfile. Rather, it creates a trace file with the commands to recreate >> > the controlfile. > > Incorrect! > > Backup and Recovery Concepts Release 2(9.2) > > The SQL statement ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE makes a binary backup of > the control file. > The SQL statement ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE TO TRACE exports the > control file contents to a SQL script file. You can use the script to create a > new control file. Trace file backups have one major disadvantage: they contain > no records of archived redo logs, offline ranges for datafiles, and RMAN > backups and copies. For this reason, binary backups are preferable > > > Regards, > Dimitre > --------------- Jason Heinrich Oracle Database Administrator Pensacola Christian College