I wonderd about the same thing a while back but never came up with an answer. I ended up using a simple logon trigger (see code below) and that has worked fine for us. create or replace trigger use_outlines after logon on database begin execute immediate 'ALTER SESSION SET USE_STORED_OUTLINES=TRUE'; end; Also, you can find out if a session is using a stored outline by checking the OUTLINE_CATEGORY column in v$sql for the cursor that the session is executing (join v$sql.hash_value to v$session.sql_hash_value). HTH, Brandon ________________________________________ Also IIRC the only way to find out if a session is using a stored outline and its category is using oradebug as illustrated in HTH, Fairlie Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message or attachments hereto. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of this company shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l