Re: pros/cons of setting COMPATIBLE parameter 11.2.0 or 11.2.0.2.4
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:39:16 +0100
Message-ID: <4F390474.3080106_at_roughsea.com>
On 02/13/2012 08:05 AM, Syed Jaffar Hussain wrote:
> Good day list,
> Very recently we have upgraded our 10gR2 (10.2.0.4) databases to 11gr2 and
> applied latest PSU patch (11.2.0.2.4). However, for some concerns, the
> COMPATIBLE parameter value was kept to 10.2.0.4. Now we need to change the
> COMPATIBLE parameter value reflecting to 11gR2. Therefore, I need an advice
> over setting the parameter to 11.2.0 OR 11.2.0.2.4? What are the pros and
> cons do you foresee.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
Syed,
I may of course be completely wrong but I would be much surprised if
it made any difference. AFAIK the third digit in the version number
refers to the application server, the fourth is "component specific"
and the fifth one is "platform specific". You could argue that when the
fifth number changes it's mostly a bug correction, or to make the
product behave in one particular environment as it behaves in the other
ones (or as the docs say that it behaves). I would be much, much
surprised if deep in the code "compatibility" were maintained at this
level - from a development point of view, it looks unmanageable to me. I
am also pretty sure that "component specific release" is a politically
correct term for "bug fix".
Compatibility is something that has to do with features - and for me
that is defined by the first three components of the version number. I
would expect code like this
if (convert_to_number(get_parameter_value("COMPATIBLE"))> threshold) {
incredibly_smart_but_slightly_experimental_routine();
} else {
staid_boring_fallback_routine_that_does_the_job_like_we_have_done_it_for_years();
}
Too fine-grained compatibility tests would lead to exponential complexity in the code, IMHO.
Now, this is my logic, not necessarily the logic at Oracle ...
-- Stephane Faroult RoughSea Ltd <http://www.roughsea.com> Konagora <http://www.konagora.com> RoughSea Channel on Youtube <http://www.youtube.com/user/roughsealtd> -- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-lReceived on Mon Feb 13 2012 - 06:39:16 CST