User Trace Files

Server processes can generate user trace files at the request of the user or DBA.
Instance-Level Tracing
Instance-level tracing should only be enabled when absolutely necessary. Tracing all sessions
will create an I/O load and can fill the file system quickly. This trace logging is enabled or
disabled by the EXEC DBMS_MONITOR.DATABASE_TRACE_ENABLE().
Session-Level Tracing
The following statement enables the writing to a trace file for a particular session:
EXECUTE DBMS_MONITOR.SESSION_TRACE_ENABLE (8,12,
waits=>TRUE, binds=>TRUE);
where 8 and 12 are the system identifier and serial number of the connected user. Typically
only a DBA has the permissions required to enable tracing on any session.
The DBMS_MONITOR package is created when the catproc.sql script is run. This script is
located in the following directory:
• On UNIX: $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin
• On Windows: %ORACLE_HOME%\rdbms\admin
To enable the writing of a trace file for your current session, execute the following command:
EXECUTE DBMS_SESSION.SET_SQL_TRACE(TRUE)