18c "set linesize window" should not affect pagesize

User51642 Yong Huang

18c SQL*Plus "set linesize window" is a great idea, especially for sqlplus run in a terminal window such as Putty whose window size can be easily changed and sqlplus linesize automatically adapts to the window size. But this setting also automatically changes pagesize to the window height. Suppose your Putty is 40 lines in height, your query that sends more than one screen full of output will repeat the header every 40 lines. And you can't even set pagesize separately, unless you stop using "linesize window" altogether. A better design would be for "set linesize window" to only affect linesize (as the name suggests), or allow an optional setting after the word "window" e.g. "set linesize window pagesize 200", or "set linesize window noset pagesize".

William Robertson

This does indeed sound wrong. For those of us without an 18c client installation, what happens when you set pagesize 999 after set linesize window? From what you're saying it sounds like pagesize now resets linesize.

The documentation doesn't mention any interactions between the two settings.

User51642 Yong Huang

This does indeed sound wrong. For those of us without an 18c client installation, what happens when you set pagesize 999 after set linesize window? From what you're saying it sounds like pagesize now resets linesize.

The documentation doesn't mention any interactions between the two settings.

Indeed! This "set linesize window" not only resets pagesize and prevents further setting of pagesize, it also has the quirk that you can't follow it with anything else. "set linesize window trimspool on" will throw error "SP2-0268: linesize option not a valid number". You have to move the setting(s) after it to the front, e.g. "set trimspool on linesize window".