Oracle Client 8 CD-ROM Bug

From: Christoph Zwerschke <christoph.zwerschke_at_sun1.zuv.uni-heidelberg.de>
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 13:09:29 +0100
Message-ID: <75ldl8$9h9@sun0.urz.uni-heidelberg.de>

Today I learned a new Oracle bug.

The install scripts on the Client 8 (8.0.4) CD-ROM - at least the scripts for ODBC V8 - are not "UNC safe", i.e. they do not anticipate an install path like "\\instserver\jukeman\client80.4". Not only the installation will abort, but even destroy your windows system (oracle network access will always crash after the aborted installation). We had to install the whole windows operating system anew to get the computer running after installing ODBC 8 over the network!

*Conclusion*: To be on the safe side, you should always connect the network ressource with the Oracle CD-ROM as a drive and not via network environment.

For the curious:
Here are the inducing buggy parts of the scripts with ad-hoc-fixes:

client80.4\win32\odbc32\odbo3220.vrf -----------------------

    tempdir = explode(product_home,"\",'STRINGSONLY);     odbc32_dir = "";
    while(not(empty(tempdir)))
    {

      next_dir = first(tempdir);
      odbc32_dir = "%odbc32_dir%%next_dir%\";
      if (contains(next_dir,"WIN32"))
      {
        break();
      }
      tempdir = rest(tempdir);

    }
    odbc32_dir = "%odbc32_dir%odbc32";
/* start of fix */

    if (contains(product_home,"\\"))
    {
      odbc32_dir = "\\%odbc32_dir%";
    }
/* end of fix */

client80.4\win32\odbc32\odbo3220.ins -----------------------

    spawn_call = replace(spawn_call, "\\", "\");
/* start of fix */

    if (contains(product_home,"\\"))
    {
      spawn_call = "\%spawn_call%";
    }
/* end of fix */

By the way: Has anybody information on the used scripting language? And: How can you send a bug report to Oracle?

Christoph Zwerschke
E-Mail: christoph.zwerschke_at_sun1.zuv.uni-heidelberg.de WWW: http://www.zuv.uni-heidelberg.de/~zwerschke/ Received on Mon Dec 21 1998 - 06:09:29 CST