How do I check the oracle client version?

Question

Hi All,
     How do I check the oracle client version installed from the OS level. I do know my database version I need to check which client is being used. Is there a table where this information is stored.
Thanks
Shabna

Answer 1

disp+work.exe -V will tell you which OCI version was used during compiling and linking.
Oracle uses release independent DLL Names (Unix people would say Shared Libraries) and therefore the SAP Kernel will dynamically load any Oracle Client Version found in the standard DLL Load Path during startup.
If you have more versions installed on your computer and you are not shure which one is loaded you can use Process Explorer (freeware, see www.sysinternals.com) to find out which one is loaded. If they belong to an Oracle_home (up to release 9.2) refere to Oracle Universal Installers Inventory information in order to find out which exact version is used.
If an Oracle10 Instant Client is used, there is no corresponding Oracle_Home. In this case you can use Windows Explorer (right click on the  DLL -for example oci.dll), select properties, the Version Tab and File Version).
But unfortunately Oracle is not updating the File Version every time they are patching something.
An SAP ABAP Server Integrated Resource is the version information disp+work.exe -V is listing (evquivalent to SM51 - Release Information).
<b>Datenbank Client Library : OCI_10201_SHARE (10.2.0.2.0)</b>
OCI_10201_SHARE is telling us the compile/link environment, the number in brackets (only available starting with Oracle10) tells us the the result of an Oracle Client GetVersion call. Unfortunately this one does also not reflect the installed Minipatch version up to now.
Here are some results on 10.2.0.2 Windows X86_64:
SM51: Datenbank Client Library : OCI_10201_SHARE (10.2.0.2.0)
Explorer (OCI.DLL located in the same directory as disp+work.exe):
   10.2.0.2.0 Patch2
Explorer (oraociicus10.dll - the instant client implementation, this version is the one actual since mini patch 10.2.0.2.5 and it was definitely changed in 10.2.0.2.5):
   OraOCIICUS10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0
   oracore10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
   oranls10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
   orasnls10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
   oraunls10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
   oravsn10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
   oracommon10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Patch1
   orageneric10.dll - 10.2.0.2.0 Patch2
   oraclient10.dll - 10.2.0.2.0 Patch2
   orapls10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Patch1
   orasql10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
   oraxml10.dll - 10.1.0.2.0
   orahasgen10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
   oraocrutl10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
   oraocr10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
   oraocrb10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
   oranbeq10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
   orantcp10.dll - 10.2.0.1.0 Production
oracommon10.dll from the rdbms server does report 10.2.0.2.0 Patch5 at the same time. compare it with the version information of oracommon10.dll included in oraociicus10.dll. Both patches are included in the same patchset (10.2.0.2.5).
there are two possible conclusions about this:
1. the version infomation is not very reliable.
2. the Oracle Patch and Build environment is not very reliable
Peter