Fix Control

Oracle has introduced a fix control mechanism in 10.2 which allows customers to turn off fixes for optimizer related bugs. This is governed by the underscore parameter _fix_control. The bugs for which fixes can be turned off are listed in v$session_fix_control and v$system_fix_control and can also be seen in a 10053 output.

On a 10.2.0.2 database

SQL> select distinct bugno from v$session_fix_control;

BUGNO
----------
3499674
4556762
4569940
3118776
4519016
4175830
4663698
4631959
4550003
4584065
4487253
4611850
4663804
4602374
4728348
4723244
4554846
4545833
4488689
4519340

20 rows selected.

SQL> select distinct sid from v$mystat;

SID
----------
143

SQL> alter session set "_fix_control"='4728348:OFF';

Session altered.

SQL> select * from v$session_fix_control where session_id=143 and bugno=4728348;

SESSION_ID BUGNO VALUE DESCRIPTION OPTIMIZER_FEATURE_ENABLE EVENT IS_DEFAULT
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- --
143 4728348 0 consider mjc if equi-joined pred is dropped in kkoipt 10.2.0.2

A value of 0 indicates the fix is off.

SQL> alter session set "_fix_control"='4728348:ON';

Session altered.

SQL> select * from v$session_fix_control where session_id=143 and bugno=4728348;

SESSION_ID BUGNO VALUE DESCRIPTION OPTIMIZER_FEATURE_ENABLE EVENT IS_DEFAULT
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- --
143 4728348 1 consider mjc if equi-joined pred is dropped in kkoipt 10.2.0.2

It appears to me that if you need two fixes off in a session you have to specify them together else you lose the first change.

SQL> alter session set "_fix_control"='4728348:OFF';

Session altered.

SQL> alter session set "_fix_control"='4663698:OFF';

Session altered.

SQL> select * from v$session_fix_control where session_id=143 and bugno in (4728348,4663698);

SESSION_ID BUGNO VALUE DESCRIPTION OPTIMIZER_FEATURE_ENABLE EVENT IS_DEFAULT
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- --
143 4663698 0 for cached NL table set tab_cost_io to zero 10.2.0.2 0 0
143 4728348 1 consider mjc if equi-joined pred is dropped in kkoipt 10.2.0.2

Hence if you need more than one fix OFF you need to supply both bug numbers in the same command

SQL> alter session set "_fix_control"='4728348:OFF','4663698:OFF';

Session altered.

SQL> select * from v$session_fix_control where session_id=143 and bugno in (4728348,4663698);

SESSION_ID BUGNO VALUE DESCRIPTION OPTIMIZER_FEATURE_ENABLE EVENT IS_DEFAULT
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- --
143 4663698 0 for cached NL table set tab_cost_io to zero 10.2.0.2 0 0
143 4728348 0 consider mjc if equi-joined pred is dropped in kkoipt 10.2.0.2