On Windows for the Oracle client, the current character set is stored in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> ORACLE -> HOME in variable NLS_LANG.

By default is setup to american_america.WE8ISO8859P1 as you see from the export log file. Edit it and next time it will pick up this value.

Of course, you can overwrite it during import/export time for the client imp/exp executables by:

c:\>set nls_lang=american_america.utf8 (for instance)

Rearding the impact - the imp/exp utility will use the local NLS_LANG variable value to produce export dmp file or perform import. If different from the db CS - then you will have character set conversion. A very convenient way to change Oracle DB character set...


Hope that helps,

clio_usa - OCP 8/8i/9i DBA

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