Steps to reproduce: 1. Start emacs from icon installed by addpm.exe 2. M-x sql-oracle 3. Enter proper username, password & database at prompts 4. At Oracle's sql*plus prompt enter: select '&x' from dual; => Emacs prompts in *Minibuf-1*, "Enter value for x: " 5. Enter &y in the mini buffer. => Emacs prompts in *Minibuf-1*, "Enter value for y: " 6. Enter z in the mini buffer. => In the *SQL* buffer: SQL> select '&x' from dual; ' - z Elapsed: 00:00:00.29 SQL> Expected result after step 5: SQL> select '&x' from dual; '& -- &y --- Contents of my sql*plus login.sql file: set serveroutput on size unlimited format wrapped set trimspool on set long 5000 set linesize 170 set pagesize 50000 set tab off set arraysize 100 set define off alter session set nls_date_format = 'SYYYY-MM-DD HH24:Mi:SS'; alter session set nls_timestamp_format = 'SYYYY-MM-DD HH24:Mi:SS.FF9'; alter session set nls_timestamp_tz_format = 'SYYYY-MM-DD HH24:Mi:SS.FF9 TZH:TZM'; set timing on --- End of login.sql Compare to: 1. M-x shell -- Results: Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601] Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. r:\>sqlplus sqlplus SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.6.0 - Production on Tue May 15 08:27:07 2012 Copyright (c) 1982, 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved. Enter user-name: sseverance Enter password: Connected to: Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options Session altered. Session altered. Session altered. SQL> set define on SQL> select '&x' from dual; Enter value for x: &y old 1: select '&x' from dual new 1: select '&y' from dual '& -- &y Elapsed: 00:00:00.32 SQL> -- end results I found I could get the behavior I wanted by customizing Sql Oracle Scan On to off (nil), which puts the following in my init.el file: (custom-set-variables ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom. ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful. ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance. ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right. '(column-number-mode t) '(org-src-fontify-natively t) '(org-src-preserve-indentation nil) '(org-src-window-setup (quote current-window)) '(scheme-program-name "petite") '(sql-oracle-scan-on t) '(tool-bar-mode nil) '(transient-mark-mode t)) -- end init.el snipit. In GNU Emacs 24.0.94.1 (i386-mingw-nt6.1.7601) of 2012-03-19 on MARVIN Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 6.1.7601 Configured using: `configure --with-gcc (4.6) --no-opt --enable-checking --cflags -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libXpm-3.5.8/include -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libXpm-3.5.8/src -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libpng-dev_1.4.3-1/include -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/zlib-dev_1.2.5-2/include -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/giflib-4.1.4-1/include -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/jpeg-6b-4/include -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/tiff-3.8.2-1/include -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/gnutls-3.0.9/include' Important settings: value of $LC_ALL: nil value of $LC_COLLATE: nil value of $LC_CTYPE: nil value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil value of $LC_MONETARY: nil value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil value of $LC_TIME: nil value of $LANG: ENU value of $XMODIFIERS: nil locale-coding-system: cp1252 default enable-multibyte-characters: t Major mode: SQLi[Oracle] Minor modes in effect: shell-dirtrack-mode: t tooltip-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t column-number-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent input: s e l e c t SPC ' Q s e t SPC d e f i n e SPC o f f o n s e l e c t SPC ' & x ' SPC f r o m SPC d u a l ; & x y C-x o x e m a c s r r e p o r t Recent messages: For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. Login...done Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort gnus-util mail-extr emacsbug message format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils shell sql thingatpt org-info org byte-opt warnings bytecomp byte-compile cconv macroexp advice help-fns advice-preload ob-emacs-lisp ob-tangle ob-ref ob-lob ob-table org-footnote org-src ob-comint ob-keys ob ob-eval org-pcomplete pcomplete comint ansi-color ring org-list org-faces org-compat org-entities org-macs noutline outline easy-mmode regexp-opt cal-menu easymenu calendar cal-loaddefs org-install time-date tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel dos-w32 disp-table ls-lisp w32-win w32-vars tool-bar dnd fontset image fringe lisp-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer button faces cus-face files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process multi-tty emacs)