Oracle Internals Notes

Controlfile Dumps

The contents of the current controlfile can be dumped in text form to a process trace file in the user_dump_dest directory using the CONTROLF dump. The levels for this dump are as follows.

Dump Level Dump Contains

1 only the file header

2 just the file header, the database info record, and checkpoint progress records

3 all record types, but just the earliest and latest records for circular reuse record types

4 as above, but includes the 4 most recent records for circular reuse record types

5+ as above, but the number of circular reuse records included doubles with each level

Dump Level	Dump Contains
1	only the file header
2	just the file header, the database info record, and checkpoint progress records
3	all record types, but just the earliest and latest records for circular reuse record types
4	as above, but includes the 4 most recent records for circular reuse record types
5+	as above, but the number of circular reuse records included doubles with each level

For example, the following syntax could be used to get a text dump on the controlfile in the trace file of the current process showing all the controlfile record types but only the oldest and most recent of the circular reuse records.

oradebug setmypid
oradebug dump controlf 3

Of course, the session must be connected AS SYSDBA to use the ORADEBUG facility. However, any session with the ALTER SESSION privilege can use the following event syntax to take the same dump.

alter session set events 'immediate trace name controlf level 3';