I understand there is a "DESCRIBE my_data_base" command in Oracle SQL, and I assume it will return material describing the d-b in question. Right so far? If so, is it restricted in some way? I'm finding I can issue SELECT from a Perl script but not DESCRIBE - I get ORA-00900 (See ORA-00900.ora-code.com): invalid SQL statement (DBD: error possibly near <*> indicator at char 1 in '<*>DESCRIBE my_data_base').