set autotrace in SQL*Plus

set autotrace off
set autotrace on
set autotrace traceonly

set autotrace on explain
set autotrace on statistics
set autotrace on explain statistics

set autotrace traceonly explain
set autotrace traceonly statistics
set autotrace traceonly explain statistics

set autotrace off explain
set autotrace off statistics
set autotrace off explain statistics

Setting autotrace allows to display some statistics and/or an query execution plan for DML statements.
set autotrace on: Shows the execution plan as well as statistics of the statement.
set autotrace on explain: Displays the execution plan only.
set autotrace on statistics: Displays the statistics only.
set autotrace traceonly: Displays the execution plan and the statistics (as set autotrace on does), but doesn't print a query's result.
set autotrace off: Disables all autotrace
If autotrace is enabled with statistics, then the following statistics are displayed:

* recursive calls
* db block gets
* consistent gets
* physical reads
* redo size
* bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
* bytes received via SQL*Net from client
* SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
* sorts (memory)
* sorts (disk)

Additionally, there is rows processed which is not found in v$statname.
Prerequisites
The explain plan feature of autotrace requires a plan_table which can be created with $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utlxplan.sql
The statistic feature requires that the user is granted select on v_$sesstat, v_$statname and v_$session.
An Oracle installation comes with $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin/plustrce.sql which installs the role plustrace. plustrace is granted those select rights. If now plustrace is granted to a user, he will then be able to turn autotrace on. Alternatively, plustrace can be granted to public.
[@more@]autotrace