Jordan Abel wrote:
> 2006-10-27 <1161979585.383055.236660@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups. com>,
> EdStevens wrote:
> > Trying to set PS1 to reflect the current value of a user environment
> > variable, when running in sh.
> >
> > Most of my systems I am running in ksh, and my PS is set as follows:
> >
> > export PS1=`hostname`'.''$ORACLE_SID> '
> >
> > so that my prompt always shows the current value of $ORACLE_SID. But
> > it appears that this syntax doesn't yeild the same results with sh.
> > There, instead of returning the value of $ORACLE_SID, it simply returns
> > the literal "$ORACLE_SID".
>
> $ORACLE_SID isn't going to change on you in the middle of a session
> unless you eval something that explicitly changes it.

Ah, but it does legitimately change quite often .. at my direction.
See my final comment, below.
>
> > The simple solution is to simply run ksh (my preference) but that
> > presents certain, uh, political challenges. Is there a simple way of
> > achieving this same functionality under sh (Solaris 5.9)?
>
> Under what circumstances does this change?

That variable is used by Oracle to designate the 'current default'
database, allowing a simpler 'connect' command -- not having to specify
a lengthy connect string that explicitly states which database I want
to work with. Quite handy on a system that is hosting multiple
databases.