Hi Jeff,

I tried what you provided, but did not work.
Could you send me a more specific example.

This is the kind of errors I got:
--------------------------------
create or replace procedure proc1(
name varchar2) as
begin
dbms_output.put_line('The name is : ' || name);
end proc1;


SQL> execute proc1 ('akl');
The name is : akl

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

From UNIX:
------------
$ PARAM1=Akl
$ echo $PARAM1
Akl
$ sqlplus / execute proc1('$PARAM1')
/usr/bin/sh: Syntax error: `(' is not expected.
$ sqlpus / execute proc1('$PARAM1');
/usr/bin/sh: Syntax error: `(' is not expected.
$ sqlplus / execute proc1 '$PARAM1'
Usage: SQLPLUS [ [