topic oratab question in Operating System - HP-UX

oratab question

ran_li — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:34:39 GMT

I noticed there are some lines start with "*" in oratab file, what does the "*" mean? Is it put by OEM? Thanks.

*:/app/oracle/product/8.1.7:N
*:/app/oracle/product/9.2.0:N
*:/app/oracle/product/10.2.0:N
DB10G:/app/oracle/product/10.2.0:N
DB8I:/app/oracle/product/8.1.7:N
DB9I:/app/oracle/product/9.2.0:N

Re: oratab question

TwoProc — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:33:00 GMT

Many times,

When you run an installer, or an autoconfig, or any of the Oracle tools that love to fool with any of the .xml files laying around in the installed (or yet to be installed) directories - the tool will often comment out the old contents of the /etc/oratab and put in there what it thinks it needs.

You can just delete those lines starting with "*", they are commented out.

BTW, I hardly ever let Oracle manage those files, I keep an "/etc/oratab.keep" backup file handy to restore and edit manually after an Oracle tool "fixes" my file for me from time to time.

Re: oratab question

Frank de Vries — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 03:23:29 GMT

I disagree with John, that the *
means in fact 'NO SID'.
And the behaviour is deliberate.

You can customize it by replacing the *
with the actual sid name or a dummy name.

Also it is allowed to have multiple entries.

I agree with John that you can delete these
lines in your case as you have already
added new lines for your SID's , then it is
safe to delete the first 3.

Oratab is used dynamically by
oraenv, dbstart and dbshut and of course
you can write your own scripts based on it.

Re: oratab question

TwoProc — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 10:43:15 GMT

I disagree with Frank disagreeing with me.

:-)

Don't let the Oracle tool "fix" your oratab for you - know what's in it, what's supposed to be in it - and keep a backup.

Re: oratab question

Paul Sperry — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 10:56:49 GMT

short sweet

The "*" are commited out you can delete those lines.