Export Parameter Files

Parameter files are a convenient way to consolidate all the options from a file that will be used when executing the utility. The benefit of the parameter file is that it allows the options to be specified once and reused by all utility jobs. Three of the utilities discussed in this chapter (export, import, SQL*Loader) support parameter files.

Below is an example of an export parameter file: export_options.par.

compress=n
direct=n
buffer=1000
tables=table_with_one_million_rows
userid=scott/tiger

Using this parameter file, the export command line is executed by the following:

exp parfile=export_options.par

Specifying options in a file makes it much easier to implement the options with any utility that accepts a parameter file. In addition, these options are not revealed on the command line, and therefore not exposed to commands ( UNIX ps command ) that would reveal the username and password had they been specified on the command line.