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README.doc README.doc README.doc README.doc README.doc README.doc

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Release Bulletin
SQL*Plus Release 9.0.1 Production
June 2001

Copyright (c) Oracle Corporation 2001. All Rights Reserved.

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README.doc README.doc README.doc README.doc README.doc README.doc
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Contents
--------

1. Restricted Rights Legend

2. Documentation
3. New Features in SQL*Plus
4. Bugs Fixed
5. Known Restrictions
6. Desupport Notices

1. Restricted Rights Legend

---------------------------

This software contains proprietary information of Oracle

Corporation; it is provided under a license agreement
containing restrictions on use and disclosure and is also
protected by copyright law. Reverse engineering of software
is prohibited.

If this software/documentation is delivered to a U.S.

Government Agency of the Department of Defense, then it is
delivered with Restricted Rights and the following legend is
applicable:

RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGEND: Use, duplication, or disclosure of

the Programs by the Government is subject to restrictions as
set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of DFARS 252.227-7013,
Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software (October
1988).

Oracle Corporation, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065.

If this software/documentation is delivered to a U.S.

Government Agency not within the Department of Defense, then
it is delivered with "Restricted Rights", as defined in FAR
52.227-14, Rights in Data - General, including Alternate III
(June 1987).

The information in this document is subject to change

without notice. If you find any problems in the
documentation, please report them to us in writing. Oracle
Corporation does not warrant that this document is error
 free.

Oracle and SQL*Plus are registered trademarks, and Oracle7 and

Oracle8 are trademarks of Oracle Corporation.

2. Documentation
----------------

The following documentation is available for SQL*Plus Release 9.0.1

Production:

A88826-01 iSQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference

A88827-01 SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference
A88828-01 SQL*Plus Quick Reference
A88829-01 SQL*Plus Getting Started for Windows

The SQL*Plus online help (HELP command) no longer contains

information on SQL, or PL/SQL syntax. For information on SQL
commands, see the Oracle9 SQL Reference. For information on PL/SQL
commands, see the PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference.

3. New Features in SQL*Plus

---------------------------

SQL*Plus Release 9.0.1 Production is a superset of SQL*Plus 8.1.

The following subsections describe new features introduced to

SQL*Plus in this and previous releases.

3.1 New Features in SQL*Plus 9.0.1 Production

---------------------------------------------

The following commands or features have been modified or

introduced:

iSQL*Plus
SET APPINFO
Command line switches
SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY
/ (slash)

iSQL*Plus
---------

iSQL*Plus is a browser-based interface to SQL*Plus. iSQL*Plus is

only available on the Microsoft Windows operating system. iSQL*Plus
will be available on other platforms in future releases.
For more information on iSQL*Plus, see the SQL*Plus release notes
for Microsoft Windows.

Read script from Uniform Resource Identifier

--------------------------------------------

A new command was added to read a SQL script from a Uniform

Resource Identifier (URI). The ability to read a script from a URI
is available in the @, @@ and START commands. The syntax is:
 @{uri|file_name[.ext]} [arg...]
@@file_name[.ext]
STA[RT] {uri|file_name[.ext]} [arg...]

uri Specifies a script to run on the specified web server.

SQL*Plus supports HTTP, FTP and gopher protocols.
Pass values to script variables in the usual way, for
example:

SQL>@http://host.domain/script.sql val1 val2

On a web server configured to serve SQL reports, you could request

SQL*Plus to execute a dynamic script by using:

SQL>@http://host.domain/scriptserver/?report=endofyear val1 val2

Note: This feature is only available on Microsoft Windows.

SET APPINFO
-----------

The default for SET APPINFO has been changed to OFF. This allows
some privileged DBA operations to be executed.

Command line switches

---------------------

The version and usage command line switches have been standardized
as:

-V[ERSION]
-H[HELP]

Invalid options give the usage message corresponding to -HELP.

The "-" and "-?" options have been obsoleted. Because they are
now invalid options the usage message will be displayed if they
are used.

SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY
------------------------

The behaviour or output format of some features may change in future

versions of SQL*Plus. For these features, there is a new SET command,
SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY {x.y[.z]}, to enable previous version behavior
to be retained. The SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY setting does not affect any
Release 9.0.1 functionality. SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY will only affect
Oracle8i and later releases.

In this release, SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY affects the way NCHAR and

NVARCHAR2 definitions are interpreted in the VARIABLE command, and
the way the /(slash) command is parsed. When SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY
is set to a valid production release prior to Oracle Release 9.0.1,
the following behavior is retained:
- the SQL*Plus VARIABLE command retains Oracle8i behavior for NCHAR
and NVARCHAR2 definitions. Oracle8i behavior enables the length n
to be in bytes or characters depending on the chosen national
character set.
 - /(slash) must be the first character on the line to be interpreted
as a run command. See /(slash) command below.
While the default value for SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY is the current
SQL*Plus version, 9.0.1, the default value of SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY set
in glogin.sql is 8.1.7. This is to prevent compatibility issues with
current Oracle8i installations caused by the behavior changes listed.

/ (slash)
---------
Parsing of the /(slash) command has changed. The new behavior in
Release 9.0.1 permits spaces before the /(slash). Prior to this
release, /(slash) was required to be the first character on the line.
If you want the old behavior in Release 9.0.1, you must install patch
1776566. You can obtain this patch from Oracle Support Services. Once
patch 1776566 is installed, you can enable the old /(slash) behavior
with the SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY command.

Example New Release 9.0.1 /(slash) Behavior

SQL>SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY 9.0.1

SQL>select * from dual
2 /
D
---
X

Example Old /(slash) Behavior

SQL>SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY 8.1.7

SQL>select * from dual
2 /
3
In this case, / is treated as a character and you are prompted
for the next line.

3.2 New Features in SQL*Plus 8.1.7 Production

---------------------------------------------

The following commands or features have been modified or

introduced:

SQLPLUS -MARKUP and SET MARKUP

COLUMN ENTMAP {ON|OFF}

SQLPLUS -MARKUP and SET MARKUP

------------------------------

Overview:

You can use the MARKUP command to generate either a complete

stand alone web page from your query or script, or HTML output
which can be embedded in a web page.

Use SQLPLUS -MARKUP HTML ON or SET MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL ON to

produce standalone web pages. SQL*Plus will generate complete
HTML pages automatically encapsulated with <HTML> and <BODY>
tags.
 SQLPLUS -MARKUP HTML ON is useful when embedding SQL*Plus in
program scripts. When SQL*Plus starts it outputs the HTML
page prolog tags before executing any commands. Subsequent
command output is marked up in HTML tags and the HTML output
is closed only when SQL*Plus terminates. The -SILENT and
-RESTRICT command line options may be used in conjunction with
-MARKUP.

SET MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL ON will generate complete HTML pages

for each subsequently spooled file. The HTML tags in a spool
file are closed when SPOOL OFF is executed or SQL*Plus exits.

You can use SET MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL OFF to generate HTML
output suitable for embedding in an existing web page. Output
generated this way has no <HTML> or <BODY> tags, but is marked
up in HTML format.

In this release, you can use MARKUP HTML ON to produce HTML

output in either the <PRE> tag or in an HTML table. Output to
a table uses standard HTML <TABLE>, <TR> and <TD> tags to
automatically encode the rows and columns resulting from a
query. Output to an HTML table is now the default behavior
when the HTML option is set ON. You can generate output using
HTML <PRE> tags by setting PREFORMAT ON.

SQL*Plus gives you the power to embed your own tags in

reports, titles or at any time in commands such as PROMPT.
SQL*Plus does not restrict the use of these tags. It does not
check the HTML syntax of user embedded tags.

Syntax:

The new MARKUP syntax for SQLPLUS -MARKUP and SET MARKUP is:

HTML [ON|OFF] [HEAD text] [BODY text] [TABLE text]

[ENTMAP {ON|OFF}] [SPOOL {ON|OFF}] [PRE[FORMAT] {ON|OFF}]

Note: MARKUP arguments may also need to be contained

in quotes on some operating systems.

For further details about the MARKUP option, see Chapter 7 and
the SET MARKUP command in Chapter 8 of the SQL*Plus User's
Guide and Reference.

COLUMN ENTMAP {ON|OFF}

----------------------

A new option, ENTMAP {ON|OFF}, has been added to the COLUMN

command to add flexibility for mapping entities. The default for
COLUMN ENTMAP is the current value of the MARKUP HTML ENTMAP
option.

"ENTMAP {ON|OFF}" in the COLUMN command allows you to explicitly

turn entity mapping on or off for selected columns in HTML
output.

This feature allows you to include, for example, HTML links

in a column of data, while still automatically mapping
 entities in other data columns. By turning entity mapping
off for a column containing HTML links, the HTML anchor tag
delimiters ("<" and ">") are correctly interpreted in the
report. Otherwise they would be replaced with their
respective entities, &lt; and &gt;, preventing web browsers
from interpreting the HTML link.

Entities in the column heading and any COMPUTE labels or

output appearing in the column are mapped or not mapped
according to the value of ENTMAP for the column.

For further details about the COLUMN ENTMAP option, see

the COLUMN command in Chapter 8 of the SQL*Plus User's
Guide and Reference.

3.3 New Features in SQL*Plus 8.1.6 Production

---------------------------------------------

The following commands or features have been modified or

introduced:

SQLPLUS -MARKUP
SET MARKUP
SHOW MARKUP
SQLPLUS -RESTRICT
Help System

SQLPLUS -MARKUP and SET MARKUP

------------------------------
See Section 3.1 for the latest syntax and examples for SQLPLUS
-MARKUP and SET MARKUP.

SHOW MARKUP
-----------
A new system variable, MARKUP, has been created for use with
SQLPLUS -MARKUP and SET MARKUP. You can use SHOW MARKUP to see
the status of MARKUP options.

SQLPLUS -RESTRICT
-----------------
The syntax for the SQLPLUS command is now:

SQLPLUS [ [option] [logon] [start] ]

where option has the following syntax:

- | -? | [ [-M[ARKUP] markup_option] [-R[ESTRICT] level] [-S[ILENT]] ]

See Section 3.1 for the latest syntax for -MARKUP markup_option.

and where logon has the following syntax:

username[/password][@net_service_name] | / | /NOLOG

and where start has the following syntax:

@filename[.ext] [parameter ...]

The SQLPLUS -RESTRICT command option allows you to disable

certain commands that interact with the operating system. This
is similar to disabling the same commands in the Product User
 Profile (PUP) table. However, commands disabled with the
-RESTRICT option are disabled even if there is no connection to
a server, and remain disabled until SQL*Plus terminates.

The restriction level must be between 1 and 3.

If the -RESTRICT option is not used, than all commands can be

used, unless disabled in the PUP table.

If -RESTRICT 3 is used, then login.sql is not read. Glogin.sql

is read but restricted commands used will fail.

The commands disabled in each restriction level are shown in the

table below.

Command Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

-------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT disabled disabled disabled
GET disabled
HOST, ! disabled disabled disabled
SAVE disabled disabled
SPOOL disabled disabled
START, @, @@ disabled
STORE disabled disabled

Help System
-----------

The SQL*Plus command line help system is now installed with

SQL*Plus scripts. SQL*Loader is no longer required. A script
to drop the help system is now supplied.

If you need to install the help system manually, locate the

directory containing the helpbld.sql and helpus.sql files
(typically $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin/help) and run:

sqlplus system/<system_password> @helpbld.sql helpus.sql

Some operating systems automate this in a script file. The

script is typically called 'helpins' or 'helpins.bat' and is
located in the same directory as the Oracle executables. Refer
to the comments in the top of the script for usage information,
which may have changed since the previous release of SQL*Plus.

The SQL*Plus script to remove the help system is called

helpdrop.sql and is located in the same directory as
helpbld.sql. To remove the help system run:

sqlplus system/<system_password> @helpdrop.sql

In this release, the help system is only available in English.

Note the help system documents only SQL*Plus, not SQL or PL/SQL
commands.

3.4 New Features in SQL*Plus 8.1.5 Production

---------------------------------------------
 The following commands or features have been modified or
introduced:

SET SQLBLANKLINES
SHOW SQLBLANKLINES
SQL*Plus Messages

SET SQLBLANKLINES
-----------------
Controls whether SQL*Plus allows blank lines within a SQL
command. ON interprets blank lines and new lines as part of a
SQL command. OFF, the default value, does not allow blank lines
or new lines in a SQL command. SQL*Plus returns to the default
behavior when a SQLTERMINTATOR or BLOCKTERMINATOR is
encountered. The syntax is:

SET SQLBL[ANKLINES] {ON|OFF}

SET SQLBLANKLINES OFF is the default.

Example:
--------
SQL> SET SQLBLANKLINES OFF
SQL> select *
2
SQL>
SQL> SET SQLBLANKLINES ON
SQL> select *
2
3 from
4
5 dual
6
7 ;

D
-
X

SQL>

SHOW SQLBLANKLINES
------------------
The SHOW SQLBLANKLINES command displays whether the SET
SQLBLANKLINES command is set ON or OFF. SQL*Plus allows
blanklines in SQL commands when SET SQLBLANKLINES is ON. The
syntax is:

SHOW SQLBL[ANKLINES]

SQL*Plus Messages
-----------------
The success message returned from any CREATE/ALTER/DROP SNAPSHOT
or SNAPSHOT LOG commands has been altered to use the phrase
"Materialized view". The terms "snapshot" and "materialized
 view" are synonymous. These commands are documented in the
Oracle8 SQL Reference. For example:

SQL> CREATE SNAPSHOT all_emps

2 AS SELECT * FROM emp;

Materialized view created.

3.5 New Features in SQL*Plus 8.1.4 Beta

---------------------------------------

The prefix for SQL*Plus Messages has changed for this release.

SQL*Plus Messages
-----------------
SQL*Plus errors and messages now have a prefix of "SP2". The
syntax of the error message is similar to that of the COPY
command error messages, for example :

SP2-0172: No HELP available

or

SP2-0691: expected SYSDBA or SYSOPER, not "scott"

Usage: CONNECT <username> [AS {SYSDBA|SYSOPER}]

3.6 New Features in SQL*Plus 8.1.3 Beta

---------------------------------------

The following commands or features have been modified or introduced:

ARCHIVE LOG
DESCRIBE
RECOVER
SET
AUTORECOVERY
DESCRIBE
INSTANCE
LOGSOURCE
SHOW
AUTORECOVERY
DESCRIBE
INSTANCE
LOGSOURCE
PARAMETERS
SGA
SHUTDOWN
STARTUP

A discussion of each command follows.

ARCHIVE LOG
-----------
Starts or stops automatic archiving of online redo log files,
manually (explicitly) archives specified redo log files, or
displays information about redo log files. The syntax is:
 ARCHIVE LOG {LIST|STOP}|{START|NEXT|ALL|integer} [TO destination]

DESCRIBE
--------
The DESCRIBE command can now describe objects recursively to the
level set in the SET DESCRIBE command. It can also display the
line number and indentation of an attribute or column name when
an object contains multiple object types. Use the SET LINESIZE
command to control the data display width. The syntax is:

DESCRIBE {object}

Example:
--------
To describe the table EMP, enter

SQL>DESCRIBE EMP

DESCRIBE lists the following information:

Name Null Type

----------------------------------------- -------- -------------------
EMPLOYEE RECUR_PERSON
DEPT RECUR_DEPARTMENT
START_DATE DATE
POSITION VARCHAR2(1)
SAL RECUR_SALARY

To describe the table EMP to a depth of three levels, enter

SQL>SET DESCRIBE DEPTH 3 LINENUM ON INDENT ON

SQL>DESCRIBE EMP

DESCRIBE lists for the following information:

Name Null Type

------------------------------ -------- --------------------
1 EMPLOYEE RECUR_PERSON
2 1 NAME VARCHAR2(20)
3 1 ADDR RECUR_ADDRESS
4 1 ADDR1 RECUR_ADDRESS1
5 1 DOB DATE
6 1 GENDER VARCHAR2(10)
7 DEPT RECUR_DEPARTMENT
8 7 DEPTNO NUMBER
9 7 DEPT_NAME VARCHAR2(20)
10 7 LOCATION VARCHAR2(20)
11 START_DATE DATE
12 POSITION VARCHAR2(1)
13 SAL RECUR_SALARY
14 13 ANNUAL_SAL NUMBER(10,2)
15 13 EMP_TYPE VARCHAR2(1)
16 13 COMM NUMBER(10,2)
17 13 PENALTY_RATE NUMBER(5,2)

RECOVER
-------
Performs media recovery on one or more tablespaces, one or more
datafiles, or the entire database. The syntax is:

RECOVER [DATABSE [[UNTIL options] [USING BACKUP CONTROLFILE]

[PARALLEL clause]]
|TABLESPACE {tablespace [, tablespace ...]}
[PARALLEL clause]
|DATAFILE {datafilename [, datafilename ...]}
[PARALLEL clause]]

where options requires the following syntax:

{CANCEL|CHANGE integer|TIME date}

and where clause requires the following syntax:

{PARALLEL ([DEGREE {integer|DEFAULT}

|INSTANCES {integer|DEFAULT}]...)|NOPARALLEL}

SET Command
-----------
The SET command has four new clauses, AUTORECOVERY, DESCRIBE,
INSTANCE, and LOGSOURCE.

The SET AUTORECOVERY command sets the RECOVER command to

automatically apply the default filenames of the archived redo
log files needed during recovery. The syntax is:

SET AUTORECOVERY {ON|OFF}

The SET DESCRIBE command sets the level to describe objects in

the DESCRIBE command. It also sets whether to display the line
number and indentation when describing an object. The syntax is:

SET DESCRIBE [option ...]

where option requires the following syntax:

[DEPTH {1|n|ALL}] [LINENUM {ON|OFF}] [INDENT {ON|OFF}]

The default for SET DESCRIBE DEPTH is 1 and can be any figure
between 1 and 50. SET DEPTH ALL describes all objects up to a
depth of 50 levels. The default for SET DESCRIBE LINENUM is
OFF. The default for SET DESCRIBE INDENT is OFF.

The SET INSTANCE command changes the default instance for your
session to the specified instance path. The syntax is:

SET INSTANCE [instance_path|LOCAL]

The SET LOGSOURCE command specifies the location from which

archive logs are retrieved during recovery. The syntax is:

SET LOGSOURCE [pathname]

SHOW Command
------------
The SHOW command has six new clauses, AUTORECOVERY, DESCRIBE,
INSTANCE, LOGSOURCE, PARAMETERS, and SGA.

The SHOW AUTORECOVERY command displays the setting for the SET
AUTORECOVERY command. The syntax is:

SHOW AUTORECOVERY

The SHOW DESCRIBE command displays the setting for the SET
DESCRIBE command. The syntax is:

SHOW DESCRIBE

The SHOW INSTANCE command displays the setting for the SET
INSTANCE command. The syntax is:

SHOW INSTANCE

The SHOW LOGSOURCE command displays the setting for the SET
LOGSOURCE command. The syntax is:

SHOW LOGSOURCE

The SHOW PARAMETERS command displays the current values for one
or more initialization parameters. You can use a string after
the command to see a subset of parameters whose names include
that string. The syntax is:

SHOW PARAMETERS [parameter_name]

The SHOW SGA command displays information about the current

instance's System Global Area. The syntax is:

SHOW SGA

SHUTDOWN
--------
Shuts down a currently running Oracle instance, optionally
closing and dismounting a database. The syntax is:

SHUTDOWN [ABORT|IMMEDIATE|TRANSACTIONAL|NORMAL]

SHUTDOWN NORMAL is the default.

STARTUP
-------
Starts an Oracle instance with several options, including
 mounting, and opening a database. The syntax is:

STARTUP [FORCE][RESTRICT][PFILE=filename][MOUNT[OPEN[RECOVER]]
[database]][mount_options]|[NOMOUNT]

where mount_options requires the following syntax:

[EXCLUSIVE|[PARALLEL|SHARED][RETRY]]

3.7 New Features in SQL*Plus 8.0.5 Production

---------------------------------------------

The following commands or features have been modified or introduced:

CONNECT
-------
The syntax of CONNECT command is extended to support the "mode"
of connection. The syntax is:

CONN[ECT] [logon] [AS [SYSOPER|SYSDBA]]|[INTERNAL]

where logon requires the following syntax:

username[/password][@database_specification]|/

3.8 New Features in SQL*Plus 8.0.3 Production

---------------------------------------------

The following commands or features have been modified or introduced:

CREATE TYPE
DESCRIBE
PASSWORD
CONNECT
SET
MAXDATA
CLOSECURSOR
COMPATIBILITY
CONSTRAINT
NEWPAGE
LOBOFFSET
VARIABLE
SHOW ERRORS
ATTRIBUTE
EXIT
Version variable

A discussion of each command follows.

CREATE TYPE
-----------
The CREATE TYPE command is processed as a PL/SQL command.

DESCRIBE
--------
 The describe command now supports the following objects:

TABLE/VIEW
PROCEDURE/FUNCTION
SYNONYM
PACKAGE
OBJECT TYPE

PASSWORD
--------
Allows password to be change without echoing the password on an
input device. The syntax is:

PASSW[ORD] [username]

Where username specifies the user. If no username is given, the

current user is used.

To change the password of another user you must have been

granted the appropriate privilege.

CONNECT
-------
If you logon or connect as a user whose account has expired, you
will be prompted to change your password before being allowed to
connect.

If the account it locked, a message is displayed and connection

as this user is not permitted until the account is unlocked by
your DBA.

For more information on account management refer to the

documentation on the CREATE and ALTER USER commands, and the
CREATE PROFILE command in the "Oracle8 Server SQL Reference".

SET Commands
------------
- The SET MAXDATA and CLOSECURSOR commands have been obsoleted and
have no effect in SQL*Plus 8.0.4

- The SET COMPATIBILITY command is modified for SQL*Plus 8.0.4.

The syntax is:

SET COM[PATIBILITY] {v7|v8|NATIVE}

The default is NATIVE. You cannot use version 6 or lower with

this version of SQL*Plus.

- The SQL language SET CONSTRAINT command is supported. Refer to

your SQL Language documentation for the syntax.

- The SET NEWPAGE command has the new keyword NONE. The syntax is:

SET NEWP[AGE] {1|n|NONE}

The default is 1. SET NEWPAGE NONE prints no blank lines and

 no formfeed between report pages. For compatibility, SET
NEWPAGE 0 prints a formfeed and no blank lines between pages.

- The SET command now has a LOBOFFSET clause. The syntax is:

SET LOBOF[FSET] {n|1}

The default is 1. The LOBOFFSET clause sets the starting

position from which CLOB and NCLOB data is retrieved and
displayed.

VARIABLE
--------
The VARIABLE command now supports bind variables of following
datatypes:

NCHAR
NVARCHAR2
NCLOB
CLOB

The maximum lengths of NCHAR and NVARCHAR2 bind variables is

2000 and 4000 respectively. For more information on these new
datatypes please refer to the Oracle8 SQL Language
documentation.

The maximum lengths of CHAR and VARCHAR2 bind variables have

been increased to 2000 and 4000 respectively.

SHOW ERRORS
-----------
The syntax is:

SHOW ERRORS [{FUNCTION|PROCEDURE|PACKAGE|PACKAGE BODY

|TRIGGER|VIEW|TYPE|TYPE BODY} [schema.]name]

ATTRIBUTE
---------
The ATTRIBUTE command has been introduced. It can be used to
format the attribute of an object when that object is
selected. The format of an attribute will not be affected when
selected as object.attribute, however, the COLUMN command can be
used in this case. The syntax is:

ATTRIBUTE [type_name.attribute_name [option ...]]

where option may be

ALI[AS] alias
CLE[AR]
FOR[MAT] format
LIKE {type_name.attribute_name|alias}
ON|OFF

Note that clearing columns will also clear all attributes.

 EXIT
----
The EXIT command now allows numeric bind variables to be used.
The syntax is:

{EXIT|QUIT} [SUCCESS|FAILURE|WARNING|n|variable|:BindVariable]
[COMMIT|ROLLBACK]

Version Variable
----------------
A new define variable _SQLPLUS_RELEASE contains a numeric form
of the SQL*Plus release number. The format is the same as the
Oracle Server release number _O_RELEASE already available.

4. Bugs Fixed
-------------

The following subsections list bugs fixed in SQL*Plus in this and

previous releases. Numbers in parentheses following the problem
description refer to bug numbers in the Oracle Bug Database.

4.1 Release 9.0.1 Production

------------------------------------

- Recovery dialog no longer prompts for a log when end of disabled thread
reached (1111709)

- Recovery dialog no longer terminates when bad log name is entered (1169101)

- Describe command can now describes synonyms based on schema object created
with double quotes (1598520, 1217127, 1035350)

- SQL*Plus now displays ORA-28002 when password expiry is in grace period

(1326865)

- SHOW ERRORS shows the errors for ALTER TYPE COMPILE BODY (1341524)

- SQL*Plus now gives an error instead of prompting for a password when a user
is not in the DBA group (1657213)

- SQL*Plus now accepts scripts from the Operating System with a space between
the '@' sign and the script name (1714104, 1617267)

- SQL*Plus now handles input files that have a control/d (EOF) character
(1265859)

- "SP2-0614: Server version too low for this feature" will no longer
appear when "glogin.sql" contains 'set serveroutput on' (1552238)

- SQL*Plus now allows for blank spaces before the '/' to terminate and
execute a PL/SQL block (1312929)

- Internal code changes (1674627, 1705536, 1713564, 1265887, 1687097,

1698337, 1698361, 1698379, 1698422, 1702306, 1705970, 1706081, 1707889,
1715102, 1715112, 1715121, 1716888)
4.1 Release 9.0.0 Beta
----------------------

- An abnormal termination when re-executing a select with a break

statement has been fixed (996778)

- The TABLE clause was added to SET MARKUP usage message (1288901)

- AUTOTRACE no longer gives an error for small values of ARRAYSIZE

(1364197)

- Some problems with SHOW ERRORS for Java source with multibyte
characters have been fixed (1458572)

- The usage statement is no longer displayed when issuing a valid

'SHOW ERRORS' command for a Java source/class (1485281)

- HTML tags for output after a SKIP are now valid (1477515)

- A problem with HTML tag markup and BTITLE has been fixed (1477529)

- Numeric variables in titles are no longer displayed correctly if a

NULL value is the first data item selected (1265664)

- DESCRIBE object does not give consistent information for object type
method has been fixed (997861)

- SQL*Plus bind variable assignment results in a 'PLS-00553' error if

issued within the same SQL*Plus session used to shutdown and restart
the database (1335603)

- Compilation of a Java source results in SQL*Plus hanging when the

character set is a multi-byte character set (1381064)

- Now when MARKUP HTML OFF is issued, no HTML output is produced.

It does not matter if MARKUP HTML SPOOL is ON or OFF (1420656)

- An invalid password change issued from the SQL*Plus PASSWORD command

should not disconnect the user (1620381)

- SET AUTOTRACE ON does not work with certain character set on the client
side. It results in ORA-00923 (1200008)

- SQL*Plus should allow CONNECT AS SYSDBA when instance is hung (1508783)

- Internal code changes (1290197, 1301950, 1353644, 1286724)

4.2 Release 8.1.7 Production

----------------------------

- The command line length is now set to 5120 characters on both

NT and Solaris platforms, instead of just NT (646064)

- The status of ENTMAP was being altered by other HTML options (1001773)

- When an object name is longer than 30 bytes, SQL*Plus returns

SP2-565 error. Sometimes it is possible that object name is longer
 that 30 bytes for multibyte character sets (664798)

- SQL*Plus goes into an infinite loop and eventually terminates

abnormally when an operating system environment variable value is
provided for the NLS_DATE_FORMAT variable (695579)

- Describe synonym via database link will result in ORA-04043

error (763958)

- Define variable names defined by ACCEPT were restricted to English

characters for single-byte character sets. Using DEFINE with an
invalid variable name did not display an error message (842798)

- Fixed various memory access errors and small leaks for error
conditions when selecting object types that SQL*Plus cannot
convert to a text representation (984823, 886471)

- Fixed a memory access error when printing some error messages

(1159255)

- SQL*Plus must trap for the server status and handle accordingly to
allow re-connection after a server status changes (949590)

- An abnormal termination was occurring when first logging in to

SQL*Plus and then issuing a "SHOW ERRORS PROCEDURE 'procname'" or
" print ''test'' " (954433)

- SQL*Plus now does not issue a recovery unless the OPEN fails with
recovery needed error (963874)

- Set instance does not give message to indicate the status of

the instance just set (977041)

- Include quote for the head & body option for the markup command
when issuing the store command (989120)

- When selecting CLOB column with Japanese character set, some chars
were missing (1008404)

- The default html title is not being displayed in the appropriate

language for a given character set. It always in English (989596)

- Inconsistent case for meta tag in set markup html command (994545)

- SQL*Plus uses wrong MODE for the SYSOPER connection (1002732)

- The DBA command RECOVER, ORADEBUG, ARCHIVE LOG do not preprocess

'&' substitution variables (1009546)

- SQL*Plus must re-attach for connection following a connect internal

(1018626)

- Set appinfo command returns error message even server is geater

than V7 database (1043461)

- An abnormal termination was occurring on some platforms if a

DESCRIBE command was issued with the LINESIZE set to one less than
a multiple of four (eg. 131) (1069320)
- Can not login as internal for non-DBA group user when enter
password separately (1078060)

- Column not displayed correctly with shift sensitive

characters (1114517)

- Value function unable to display attribute of type raw (1129911)

- Show errors prints incorrect message for java object that has
compilation errors (1132921)

- SQL*Plus need to trap for server session status to allows for

subsequence connection after a server session status has
changed (1134891)

- Select join aggregate group by parallel results in ORA-24347 and

"No row selected" (1149002)

- If NLS_LANG is set to an EBCDIC character set on an ASCII

platform, SQL*Plus gives various odd errors when setting the
_EDITOR value and fails to start. It is not valid to use EBCDIC
characters sets in non ECDIC environments. The detection of some
(known) invalid character sets has been added. At startup
SQL*Plus now prints an error "Invalid NLS character set for this
OS environment. Error 19 initializing SQL*Plus" and returns to the
operating system prompt (1167044)

- Using 'alter user password expire;' option produces an Ora-988

error in SQL*PLUS when user logs in and is prompted to change
password (1225555)

- HTML entity mapping does not convert double quotes (1227772)

- SQL*Plus does not free temporary lob after data is fetched and
displayed (1282663)

- Internal code changes (984823, 886471, 1159255, 1015221, 1015235,

1086606, 1087990, 1093771, 1097298, 1179762, 1186233, 1194429,
1221856, 1272028, 1283615, 1312546)

4.3 Release 8.1.6 Production

----------------------------

- On Windows NT, errors from trying to run a console file are now
echoed to spool files (617398)

- When connected to a V7 database using a V8 SQL*Plus client,

changing the date format with 'ALTER SESSION' no longer has the
potential to truncate the displayed dates (663806)

- SQL*Plus on Windows NT and UNIX now have similar output for HELP,
BREAK, and SET TIMING (690909, 874656)

- The statistics for AUTOTRACE now report only on the user SQL. The
AUTOTRACE features also works for externally authenticated
("OPS$") users (690925)

- The initial extent size of the HELP table has been reduced
 (691638)

- Dynamic SQL compilation errors within PL/SQL blocks are now trapped.
Use the expliction object name with SHOW ERRORS to view the warnings
(716198)

- Some internal functions were changed to handle 8-bit data (727622)

- SHOW ERROR now handles case conversion of names in the server

character set (730690)

- The default format for number types in collections is now the same
as for scalar columns (731416)

- SHOW PARAMETER no longer truncates names or values. The "IFILE"

parameter now displays the correct type. Parameter names used in
"SHOW PARAMETERS <parameter_name>" are no longer case sensitive
(733501, 959439)

- SET LOGSOURCE "" is now accepted. This allows files created with
the STORE SET command to be loaded without error (734764)

- A memory access error with SET AUTOTRACE was fixed (746313)

- Some internal changes to SET DESCRIBE were made (751078, 933606)

- SET AUTOTRACE shows the correct output when using stored outlines
(757580)

- SHOW PARAMETER now orders output so the parameters that can have
multiple initialization file entries are listed in the order they
were written (776577)

- A memory access error that occurred on some operating systems with

the COPY command has been fixed (785150)

- A memory leak when selecting from VARRAYS no longer occurs and

memory use has been optimized (691247)

- A problem preventing users being prompted to change their expired

password in some cases has been fixed (697133)

- A problem connecting to SQL*Plus when in the password expiry grace

period is fixed (739529)

- A number of problems with the STARTUP and SHUTDOWN commands have

been resolved (731789, 758873, 771058, 777723, 777732, 770840,
780377, 781702, 790865, 820739, 836631, 861750, 877682, 928680,
939122, 957368)

- SET AUTOTRACE TRACEONLY no longer causes an abnormal termination

when connected as internal (755620)

- Substitution ('&') variables can now be used in the STARTUP and

SHUTDOWN commands (777617)

- Some internal changes were made for message handling (812337,

826100, 869496)
- A DESCRIBE formatting problem occurring on several platforms has
been fixed (813744)

- A memory access error no longer occurs when using SQL commands

with long initial keyword string (eg. CREATE OR REPLACE AND
RESOLVE NOFORCE JAVA) has been fixed (815059)

- Error messages from STARTUP and SHUTDOWN now have individual error
messages (820683)

- A memory access error for the PRINT command has been fixed (836620)

- An abnormal termination doing a DESCRIBE with a large LINESIZE has

been fixed (842965)

- A problem displaying report output in the KO16DBCS character set was

fixed (870090)

- The character mode SQL*PLus on Windows NT can now have input

redirected into it (874666)

- A problem connecting with usernames containing Latin-1 characters

has been fixed (876573)

- SQL*Plus now resyncronizes with the server character set after

CREATE DATABASE commands (877018)

- Entering "/nolog" at the "Username:" prompt no longer causes an

abnormal termination. The "/nolog" option is valid only as a
parameter to the "sqlplus" command (887502)

- A problem causing ORA-1458 when using COPY has been fixed (898213)

- The HIREDATE field of the EMP demonstration table is now created

with explict four digit years (911745)

- SQL*Plus supports the new connection syntax of Net8 (913977)

- A success message is now printed for the RECOVER command (923081)

- The SET DESCRIBE usage message is no longer hard coded and may now
be translated (930478)

- A duplicate 'rm' entry in the ins_sqlplus.mk file has been removed

(933662)

- The feedback message for ALTER DATABASE is no longer printed for

unsuccessful commands (955315)

- A duplicate error message when attempting to connect with an invalid

service name no longer occurs (957653)

- Errors when "connect internal" fails are now displayed (971223)

- Some new DATETIME and interval types can be described (975262)

- Collections no longer have extraneous NULLs displayed (993216)

- Internal code changes (1010644, 704182, 754503, 759630, 825347,

 874808, 892013, 896196, 903144)

4.4 Release 8.1.5 Production

----------------------------

- SQL*Plus now accepts a Net8 net service name at the password

prompt eg. Enter password: pw@net_service_name (716295)

- Schema names are no longer truncated when describing types (729459)

- Changes were made to parsing usernames, passwords and net service

names. Preceding and embedded whitespace, and quotes are handled
better (731901, 745122, 662178)

- Describing a type with attributes of large size no longer causes a

memory exception (745289)

- The EXECUTE command now works in I18N mode (728349)

- The capitalization of the statistics feedback messages was

corrected (734703)

- Using an uninitialized bind variable in an EXIT statement no longer

causes an abnormal termination (692895)

- Internal changes (718668, 719337, 719339, 734189)

4.5 Release 8.1.4 Beta

----------------------

- The maximum length for spool file names was increased. Error
checking was improved to prevent a core dump with long names
(690415)

- SQL*Plus nows displays a user error message instead of an internal

error when selecting from a nested table or varray of raw (726753)

- Corrected some command usage messages and regularized some error

messages (672460)

- A display bug for multi-byte column names with shift-in/out bytes

has been fixed (695505)

- The SQL*Net network service name is no longer ignored after an

ORA-1017 occurs (695663)

- Selecting a number column with a to_char(col, 'FM99') conversion

no longer displays an extra character (644529)

- Internal changes (664915, 700687, 702954, 719356)

4.6 Release 8.1.3 Beta

----------------------

- ORA-01089 WHILE CONNECT INTERNAL (642150)

- WHEN INSTANCE IDLE, CONNECT INTERNAL SHOULD SHOW CONNECTED TO IDLE
INSTANCE (633194)

- SET INSTANCE INSTANCE_NAME IS NOT SUPPORTED IN SQLPLUS (630142)

- DESCRIBE OBJECT TYPE WITH METHOD RESULT ORA-24328 (663606)

- DESCRIBE A TYPE DOES NOT DISPLAY THE SCHEMA OF THE TYPES OF ITS ATTRIBUTES
(654349)

- DESCRIBE <TYPE> FAILS IF ITS ATTRIBUTES ARE IN A DIFFERENT SCHEMA.

(657660)

- CAN NOT DESCRIBE A SYNONYM WHICH POINTS TO A REMOTE OBJECT (624720)

- RECONNECCT AFTER ALTER USER USER1 PASSWORD EXPIRE WILL RESULT DISCONNECT
(661550)

- SQLPLUS EXITS WITH MULTIPLE ORA-1012S AND MEMORY ERROR AFTER INVALID
'CONNECT' (661485)

- STARTUP USING SQLPLUS GETS ERROR MESSAGES (BUT SUCCEEDS) (655716)

- SQLCODE NOT AFFECTED BY SUCCESSFUL STATEMENT (650528)

- SQLPLUS CORE DUMPS WHEN SUBSTITUTION STRING IS TOO LONG (646064)

- STARTUP WITH PFILE SPECIFIED RESULT LRM-00109 AND ORA-01078 (639811)

- SHOW ALL SHOW SHIFTINOUT IN WRONG POSITION (594672)

- Internal code changes (656797, 664915, 666769, 671924, 642147, 660109,

664921)

5. Known Restrictions
---------------------

* Starting a file from a universal resource indicator (using the "@URI"

syntax) is only available on Windows NT/2000, and not other platforms.

* Columns of type NCLOB cannot be formatted with WORD_WRAPPING.

When the "COLUMN" command is used to format such columns with the
"WORD_WRAP" option, the column data will WRAP instead of
WORD_WRAP.

* Non-blocking database calls are not supported by the new

interface to the Oracle8 server. This does not affect
multi-tasking operating systems.

* Querying of LONG columns requires enough local memory to store

the amount of data, as specified by the value of SET LONG
command, irrespective of the value of the SET LONGCHUNKSIZE
command.

* When connected to a V7 server, the syntax for the DESCRIBE

command is DESCRIBE {[schema.]object[.subobject|@db_link]
[column]} which is the same as SQL*Plus version 3 (released with V7).
 * Some privileged connections to the server may generate errors if
the SET SERVEROUTPUT or SET APPINFO commands have been put in the
global initialization file (glogin.sql) or local file
(login.sql).

6. Desupport Notices
--------------------

This section gives advance notice of the desupport of SQL*Plus commands

and interfaces. It is not official notice of desupport dates, nor is it
intended to replace the Oracle obsolesence process. This information
provides you with advance warning that Oracle Corporation intends to
desupport these features/interfaces in upcoming releases. Oracle
Corporation does not intend to support these features/interfaces beyond
the Oracle9i support dates, and they may not be available in future
versions.

COPY Command
------------

The COPY command will be obsoleted in future releases of SQL*Plus.

COPY supports the datatypes listed in the SQL*Plus User's Guide and
Reference, but no new datatypes will be supported.

Windows Graphical User Interface

--------------------------------

The SQL*Plus for Windows graphical user interface (GUI) will be

desupported in future releases of SQL*Plus. The browser-based iSQL*Plus
interface will replace the SQL*Plus for Windows GUI. The SQL*Plus for
Windows command line (DOS) interface will continue to be supported.

End of Release Bulletin.

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