Beware of OPatch.....

Here's a nice one......

Running opatch 1.0.0.0.54, applying one-off patch to 9.2.0.6 on Sparc Solaris 5.9 64-bit.

In my environment, the 'ar' binary (which Opatch uses to replace objects in libraries) is in /usr/ccs/bin and as it happens, was not in the oracle users' default $PATH.

Well, OPatch does NOT check if 'ar' is in it's path before proceeding. The result is, if 'ar' is NOT in the $PATH, OPatch overwrites the library being patched w/ a zero-length file!

Yeah, not only does it not work, it cripples the $ORACLE_HOME!

Nice, eh?

Just a cautionary tale, in hopes others will avoid the pain I went through.

-Mark

PS I have filed an enhancement request to have OPatch check for 'ar' before proceeding....

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Mark J. Bobak
Senior Oracle Architect
ProQuest Information & Learning

"There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't."
 <<Bobak, Mark.vcf>>

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http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l Received on Mon Feb 06 2006 - 11:04:45 CST