You call the DBMS_LOGMNR.START_LOGMNR procedure to start LogMiner. Because the options available with the DBMS_LOGMNR.START_LOGMNR procedure allow you to control output to the V$LOGMNR_CONTENTS view, you must call DBMS_LOGMNR.START_LOGMNR before querying the V$LOGMNR_CONTENTS view.
When you start LogMiner, you can:
Specify how LogMiner should filter data it returns (for example, by starting and ending time or SCN value)
Specify options for formatting the data returned by LogMiner
Specify the LogMiner dictionary to use
The following list is a summary of LogMiner settings that you can specify with the OPTIONS parameter to DBMS_LOGMNR.START_LOGMNR and where to find more information about them.
DICT_FROM_ONLINE_CATALOG — See "Using the Online Catalog"
DICT_FROM_REDO_LOGS — See "Start LogMiner"
CONTINUOUS_MINE — See "Redo Log File Options"
COMMITTED_DATA_ONLY — See "Showing Only Committed Transactions"
SKIP_CORRUPTION — See "Skipping Redo Corruptions"
NO_SQL_DELIMITER — See "Formatting Reconstructed SQL Statements for Re-execution"
PRINT_PRETTY_SQL — See "Formatting the Appearance of Returned Data for Readability"
NO_ROWID_IN_STMT — See "Formatting Reconstructed SQL Statements for Re-execution"
DDL_DICT_TRACKING — See "Tracking DDL Statements in the LogMiner Dictionary"
When you execute the DBMS_LOGMNR.START_LOGMNR procedure, LogMiner checks to ensure that the combination of options and parameters that you have specified is valid and that the dictionary and redo log files that you have specified are available. However, the V$LOGMNR_CONTENTS view is not populated until you query the view, as described in "How the V$LOGMNR_CONTENTS View Is Populated".
Note that parameters and options are not persistent across calls to DBMS_LOGMNR.START_LOGMNR. You must specify all desired parameters and options (including SCN and time ranges) each time you call DBMS_LOGMNR.START_LOGMNR.