Oracle in a Nutshell

Parameters

namespace

Name of a namespace previously created using the CREATE CONTEXT statement. You can also specify the default namespace USERENV.

attribute_name

Name of an attribute within the namespace, which is then returned by this function. Several predefined attributes are available for use with the default USERENV namespace and are listed in Table 8-3.

length

Length that you want to allow for an attribute’s return value. This optional parameter is only available beginning with Oracle 8.1.6 and only for the AUTHENTICATION_DATA attribute; in addition, it cannot be more than 4000.0

Table 8-3. Predefined attributes in the USERENV namespace

Attribute name	Description	Max length	Since version
AUTHENTICATION_DATA	Data being used to authenticate a user. If authentication is via an X.503 certificate, the content of the certificate will be returned in hexadecimal format.	256-4000	8.1.6
AUTHENTICATION_TYPE	Indicates how the user was authenticated: DATABASE: A username and password were used. OS: Operating system authentication was used. NETWORK: Authentication was via a network protocol or via the Advanced Networking Option (ANO). PROXY: Authentication was by an Oracle Call Interface (OCI) proxy.	30	8.1.6
BG_JOB_ID	If the current session was created by an Oracle background process, this is the job ID of the session; otherwise, it is NULL.	30	8.1.6
CLIENT_INFO	Returns up to 64 bytes of user session information stored using the DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package.	64	8.1.6 ...