sp_configure parses each parameter (and parameter name fragment) as “%parameter%”. A string that does not uniquely identify a particular parameter returns values for all parameters matching the string.
The following example returns values for all configuration parameters that include “lock,” such as lock shared memory, number of locks, lock promotion HWM, server clock tick length, print deadlock information, and deadlock retries:
sp_configure "lock"
If you attempt to set a parameter value with a nonunique
parameter name fragment, sp_configure returns
the current values for all parameters matching the fragment and
asks for a unique parameter name.
