USERENV

Syntax

userenv::=

Text description of userenv

Purpose

Note: USERENV is a legacy function that is retained for backward compatibility. Oracle Corporation recommends that you use the SYS_CONTEXT function with the built-in USERENV namespace for current functionality. See SYS_CONTEXT for more information.

USERENV returns information of VARCHAR2 datatype about the current session. This information can be useful for writing an application-specific audit trail table or for determining the language-specific characters currently used by your session. You cannot use USERENV in the condition of a CHECK constraint. Table 6-11 describes the values for the parameter argument.

Table 6-11  USERENV Parameters

Parameter	Return Value
'CLIENT_INFO'	CLIENT_INFO returns up to 64 bytes of user session information that can be stored by an application using the DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package.
	Caution: Some commercial applications may be using this context value. Check the applicable documentation for those applications to determine what restrictions they may impose on use of this context area.
	Oracle recommends that you use the application context feature or the SYS_CONTEXT function with the USERENV namespace. These alternatives are more secure and flexible. See Also: - Oracle9i Database Concepts for information on application context - CREATE CONTEXT and SYS_CONTEXT
'ENTRYID'	ENTRYID returns available auditing entry identifier. You cannot use this attribute in distributed SQL statements. To use this keyword in USERENV, the initialization parameter AUDIT_TRAIL must be set to true.
'INSTANCE'	INSTANCE returns the instance identification number of the current instance.
'ISDBA'	ISDBA returns 'TRUE' if the user has been authenticated as having DBA privileges either through the operating system or through a password file.
'LANG'	LANG returns the ISO abbreviation for the language name, a shorter form than the existing 'LANGUAGE' parameter.
'LANGUAGE'	LANGUAGE returns the language and territory currently used by your session along with the database character set in this form: language_territory.characterset
'SESSIONID'	SESSIONID returns your auditing session identifier. You cannot use this attribute in distributed SQL statements.
'TERMINAL'	TERMINAL returns the operating system identifier for your current session's terminal. In distributed SQL statements, this attribute returns the identifier for your local session. In a distributed environment, this is supported only for remote SELECT statements, not for remote INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations.

Example

The following example returns the LANGUAGE parameter of the current session:

SELECT USERENV('LANGUAGE') "Language" FROM DUAL;

Language
-----------------------------------
AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8DEC