Tracking changes to the schema over time

Hello everyone-

I am looking to solve a problem that I hope already has been solved by some of you. We have a database schema that changes over time in subtle ways (a column's datatype changes or a stored procedure changes). The version of the schema in use is tightly coupled with the version of the application in use so as the application is upgraded, so too must the database schema. Each version will have a patch SQL script that will update from the previous version to the current version so I just need to know the current version and then run all the patches between that version and the current version.

How can I determine what version of a schema is in use so that I can run the required scripts to upgrade it to the current version?

Options I have considered:

• A table with one row per version where you would insert a new row each upgrade. The issue with this method is that there is no guarantee that the version indicated in this table matches up with the actual schema (perhaps an upgrade broke and didn't do everything it was supposed to do).
• I could write a custom script to inspect every aspect of every object to confirm its version. This sounds really hard and I can't think of any way for DBMS_METADATA to help me out.

This is 10gR2. The objects in question are tables, mviews (and their snapshots & refresh groups), indexes, functions, and procedures.

Thanks,
e.

Eric Gross
GridApp Systems
Mr. Database
egross_at_gridapp.com
p: (646) 452-4050

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