Oracle Database Discussions

Hello.

I'm trying to debug a problem that our QA department found. I think the bug lies in their NLS_ settings. When I tried to login as the oracle user that found the bug, I do a:

sql> show parameter NLS;

but the command complains about view/table not found. When I describe v$parameter, the table doesn't show up. When I log in as sys, but show and describe commands work.

Now, since I'm not a DBA, my question is, shouldn't all users have read access to v$parameter? If not, what is the command to show what is set for your session? I always thought it was show parameter...

Thanks.