BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST

Property	Description
Parameter type	String
Syntax	BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST = { pathname | directory }
Default value	Operating system-dependent
Modifiable	ALTER SYSTEM
Range of values	Any valid local path, directory, or disk
Basic	No

BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST specifies the pathname (directory or disc) where debugging trace files for the background processes (LGWR, DBWn, and so on) are written during Oracle operations.

An alert file in the directory specified by BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST logs significant database events and messages. Anything that affects the database instance or global database is recorded here. The alert file is a normal text file. Its filename is operating system-dependent. For platforms that support multiple instances, it takes the form alert_sid.log, where sid is the system identifier. This file grows slowly, but without limit, so you might want to delete it periodically. You can delete the file even when the database is running.

Note:

1. This parameter is ignored by the new diagnosability infrastructure introduced in Oracle Database 11g Release 1, which places trace and core files in a location controlled by the DIAGNOSTIC_DEST initialization parameter.

2. Related: USER_DUMP_DEST

BACKGROUND_CORE_DUMP

SHADOW_CORE_DUMP

This parameter is deprecated in 11g due to a new diagnostic / trace infrastructure. See Note 422893.1 for more details of the new diagnostic repository.

3. In some error cases a trace file may be written before BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST has been determined properly. In this case traces may be written to the $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/log directory instead.

% cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/log % ls -l total 2 -rw-r--r-- 1 oracle dba 116 Sep 15 09:52 dp.log % more dp.log Data Pump default directory object created: directory object name: DATA_PUMP_DIR creation date: 15-SEP-2008 09:52

4. Query for the current value of the parameter

select name, value, isdefault, isses_modifiable, issys_modifiable,

isinstance_modifiable, isdeprecated, description

from v$parameter where upper(name) = 'BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST';

NAME	VALUE	IS DEFAULT	ISSES_ MODIFIABLE	ISSYS_ MODIFIABLE	ISINSTANCE_ MODIFIABLE	IS DEPRECATED	DESCRIPTION
background_dump_dest	/oracle/admin/mydb/bdump	FALSE	FALSE	IMMEDIATE	TRUE	FALSE	Detached process dump directory