You can start Import, and specify parameters by using any of the following methods:
Command-line entries
Parameter files
Interactive mode
Before you use one of these methods, be sure to read the descriptions of the available parameters. See "Import Parameters".
You can specify all valid parameters and their values from the command line using the following syntax (you will then be prompted for a username and password):
imp PARAMETER=value
or
imp PARAMETER=(value1,value2,...,valuen)
The number of parameters cannot exceed the maximum length of a command line on the system.
You can specify all valid parameters and their values in a parameter file. Storing the parameters in a file allows them to be easily modified or reused. If you use different parameters for different databases, then you can have multiple parameter files.
Create the parameter file using any flat file text editor. The command-line option PARFILE=filename tells Import to read the parameters from the specified file rather than from the command line. For example:
The syntax for parameter file specifications can be any of the following:
PARAMETER=value PARAMETER=(value) PARAMETER=(value1, value2, ...)
The following example shows a partial parameter file listing:
FULL=y FILE=dba.dmp GRANTS=y INDEXES=y CONSISTENT=y
The maximum size of the parameter file may be limited by the operating system. The name of the parameter file is subject to the file-naming conventions of the operating system.
You can add comments to the parameter file by preceding them with the pound (#) sign. Import ignores all characters to the right of the pound (#) sign.
You can specify a parameter file at the same time that you are entering parameters on the command line. In fact, you can specify the same parameter in both places. The position of the PARFILE parameter and other parameters on the command line determines which parameters take precedence. For example, assume the parameter file params.dat contains the parameter INDEXES=y and Import is started with the following line:
imp PARFILE=params.dat INDEXES=n
In this case, because INDEXES=n occurs after PARFILE=params.dat, INDEXES=n overrides the value of the INDEXES parameter in the parameter file.
"Network Considerations" for information about how to specify an export from a remote database
If you prefer to be prompted for the value of each parameter, then you can simply specify imp at the command line. You will be prompted for a username and password.
Commonly used parameters are then displayed. You can accept the default value, if one is provided, or enter a different value. The command-line interactive method does not provide prompts for all functionality and is provided only for backward compatibility.
SYSDBA is used internally and has specialized functions; its behavior is not the same as for generalized users. Therefore, you should not typically need to start Import as SYSDBA, except in the following situations:
At the request of Oracle technical support
When importing a transportable tablespace set