this is actually what i need to do.

i currently have a database running on 8.1.6 software. this morning i installed 8.1.7 software into a different directory. i now need to make a copy of the 8.1.6 database but make it run the 8.1.7 software. i plan to shutdown 8.1.6 database. copy all datafiles/logfiles/... to new location. i then plan to recreate the control files with the new database name. i have done this several times successfully but never attempted to uprade at the same time. all i have to do is chance the $ORACLE_HOME and $ORACLE_SID variables prior to doing this?? ...that seems to easy.

this is all being done on hp-ux11 (probably unnecessary info)

thanks again
chris