Using ORAPWD

The syntax of the ORAPWD command is as follows:

ORAPWD FILE=filename [ENTRIES=numusers]
  [FORCE={Y|N}] [IGNORECASE={Y|N}] [NOSYSDBA={Y|N}]

Command arguments are summarized in the following table.

Argument	Description
FILE	Name to assign to the password file. See your operating system documentation for name requirements. You must supply a complete path. If you supply only a file name, the file is written to the current directory.
ENTRIES	(Optional) Maximum number of entries (user accounts) to permit in the file.
FORCE	(Optional) If y, permits overwriting an existing password file.
IGNORECASE	(Optional) If y, passwords are treated as case-insensitive.
NOSYSDBA	(Optional) For Data Vault installations. See the Data Vault installation guide for your platform for more information.

There are no spaces permitted around the equal-to (=) character.

The command prompts for the SYS password and stores the password in the created password file.

Example

The following command creates a password file named orapworcl that allows up to 30 privileged users with different passwords.

orapwd FILE=orapworcl ENTRIES=30

ORAPWD Command Line Argument Descriptions

The following sections describe the ORAPWD command line arguments.

FILE

This argument sets the name of the password file being created. You must specify the full path name for the file. If you supply only a file name, the file is written to the current directory. The contents of this file are encrypted, and the file cannot be read directly. This argument is mandatory.

The types of filenames allowed for the password file are operating system specific. Some operating systems require the password file to adhere to a specific format and be located in a specific directory. Other operating systems allow the use of environment variables to specify the name and location of the password file. For name and location information for the Unix and Linux operating systems, see Administrator's Reference for UNIX-Based Operating Systems. For Windows, see Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows. For other operating systems, see your operating system documentation.

If you are running multiple instances of Oracle Database using Oracle Real Application Clusters, the environment variable for each instance should point to the same password file.

Caution:

It is critically important to the security of your system that you protect your password file and the environment variables that identify the location of the password file. Any user with access to these could potentially compromise the security of the connection.

ENTRIES

This argument specifies the number of entries that you require the password file to accept. This number corresponds to the number of distinct users allowed to connect to the database as SYSDBA or SYSOPER. The actual number of allowable entries can be higher than the number of users, because the ORAPWD utility continues to assign password entries until an operating system block is filled. For example, if your operating system block size is 512 bytes, it holds four password entries. The number of password entries allocated is always a multiple of four.

Entries can be reused as users are added to and removed from the password file. If you intend to specify REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE=EXCLUSIVE, and to allow the granting of SYSDBA and SYSOPER privileges to users, this argument is required.

Caution:

When you exceed the allocated number of password entries, you must create a new password file. To avoid this necessity, allocate a number of entries that is larger than you think you will ever need.

FORCE

This argument, if set to Y, enables you to overwrite an existing password file. An error is returned if a password file of the same name already exists and this argument is omitted or set to N.

IGNORECASE

If this argument is set to y, passwords are case-insensitive. That is, case is ignored when comparing the password that the user supplies during login with the password in the password file.