Skip Headers

Oracle® Database Net Services Reference Guide
10g Release 1 (10.1)

Part Number B10776-01
Go to Documentation Home
Home
Go to Book List
Book List
Go to Table of Contents
Contents
Go to Index
Index
Go to Master Index
Master Index
Go to Feedback page
Feedback

Go to previous page
Previous
Go to next page
Next
View PDF

3 Syntax Rules for Configuration Files

This chapter describes the syntax rules for Oracle Net Services configuration files.

This chapter contains these topics:

Configuration File Syntax Overview

The Oracle Net Services configuration files consist of parameters which include keyword-value pairs. Keyword-value pairs are surrounded by parentheses:

parameter=(keyword=value)

Some keywords have other keyword-value pairs as their values:

(keyword=
    (keyword=value)
    (keyword=value))

For example, the address portion of a local naming configuration file (tnsnames.ora) might include the following lines:

(ADDRESS=
   (PROTOCOL=tcp)
   (HOST=sales-server)
   (PORT=1521))

Set up configuration files so that indentation reflects what keyword is the parent or owner of other keyword-value pairs.

Even if you do not choose to indent your files in this way, you must indent a wrapped line by at least one space, or it will be misread as a new parameter. The following layout is acceptable:

(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)
  (HOST=sales-server)(PORT=1521))

The following layout is not acceptable:

(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)
(HOST=sales-server)(PORT=1521))

Further Syntax Rules for Configuration Files

The following rules apply to the syntax of configuration files:

Network Character Set

The network character set for keyword values consists of the following characters. Connect descriptors must be made up of single-byte characters.

A-Z, a-z

0-9

( ) < > / \

, . : ; ' "=- _

$ + * # & ! % ? @

Within this character set, the following symbols are reserved:

( )=\ " ' #

Reserved symbols are used as delimiters, not as part of a keyword or a value unless the keyword or value is quoted. Either single or double quotes can be used to enclose a value containing reserved symbols. To include a quote within a value that is surrounded by quotes, use different quote types. The backslash (\) is used as an escape character.

The following characters may be used within a connect descriptor, but not in a keyword or value:

<Space> <Tab> <Carriage Return> <Newline>

Character Set

The listener name and net service name are limited to the following character set:

[a...z] [A...Z] [0...9] _

The first character must be an alphabetical character. In general, up to 64 characters is acceptable. A database service name must match the global database name defined by the database administrator, which consists of a database name (originally limited to eight characters), and the database domain. Net service names and global database names are not case sensitive.