<p>Oracle FAQ defines temp table space as follows:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Temporary tablespaces are used to
  manage space for database sort
  operations and for storing global
  temporary tables. For example, if you
  join two large tables, and Oracle
  cannot do the sort in memory, space
  will be allocated in a temporary
  tablespace for doing the sort
  operation.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>That's great, but I need more detail about what exactly is using the space. Due to quirks of the application design most queries do some kind of sorting, so I need to narrow it down to client executable, target table, or SQL statement.</p>

<p>Essentially, I'm looking for clues to tell me more precisely what might be wrong with this (rather large application). Any sort of clue might be useful, so long as it is more precise than "sorting".</p>

I'm not sure exactly what information you have to hand already, but using the following query will point out which program/user/sessions etc are currently using your temp space.
```
```
SELECT   b.TABLESPACE
       , b.segfile#
       , b.segblk#
       , ROUND (  (  ( b.blocks * p.VALUE ) / 1024 / 1024 ), 2 ) size_mb
       , a.SID
       , a.serial#
       , a.username
       , a.osuser
       , a.program
       , a.status
    FROM v$session a
       , v$sort_usage b
       , v$process c
       , v$parameter p
   WHERE p.NAME = 'db_block_size'
     AND a.saddr = b.session_addr
     AND a.paddr = c.addr
ORDER BY b.TABLESPACE
       , b.segfile#
       , b.segblk#
       , b.blocks;
```
```
Once you find out which session is doing the damage, then have a look at the SQL being executed, and you should be on the right path.