Re: safe to delete 'old' archive logs?

From: Mark Bole <makbo_at_pacbell.net>
Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 01:35:20 GMT
Message-ID: <sLdqc.68222$cl.27013@newssvr25.news.prodigy.com>

Howard J. Rogers wrote:

> Paul Drake wrote:
>

>> "Tom" <tomNOSPAM_at_teameazyriders.com> wrote in message 
>> news:<1084787189.18929.0_at_lotis.uk.clara.net>...
>>
>>> Oracle 9.2.0.4
>>> Linux AS
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>

[...]
> [snip]
>
>

>>> -rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall 104857088 Mar 18 17:44 1_57.dbf >>>
[...]

>>
>> 1. oinstall is for installing software. reset the default group of the
>> oracle account to dba so that such files are created under the
>> ownership of the dba group. change the ownership of the existing
>> files.

>
>
> Now, I am ready to bow to superior knowledge on Linux at any stage, but
> I rather think that the group displayed for his archives depends on what
> group he specified when installing Oracle in the first place. You know,
> that screen in the installer where it says "Unix Group Name ... please
> enter a group name that will have permission to update Oracle software
> on this system"?
>
> Most people stick "dba" in there, it is true. It's not actually advised
> to do that in the 10g installation notes (they recommend "oinstall"...
> Lord knows what the 9i installation doco advises, but I would expect it
> to be vaguely similar). My web pages likewise suggest "oinstall". So it
> is quite possible, is it not, that the right group is there all along?
>
> Chowning these things would just make things all the more complicated in
> that case, surely.
>
> Regards
> HJR

[...]

Or just go into /etc/group (or NIS, or whatever you use) and change the symbolic name for the group from 'oinstall' to 'dba', or vice versa. Under Unix (all flavors since the epoch, AFAIK) the group is "defined" (stored in the filesystem) by the number (GID = group ID), not the name.   The name is just a lookup. There is an option to the "ls" command (and many others as well) to use GID's instead of names.

If you support multiple Unix boxes of any flavor, it is convenient to have your 'oracle' UID, and also the GID of the group with SYSDBA privilege, have consistent numeric values across all boxes, for example 'oracle' UID=102 (in /etc/passwd) and 'dba' GID=103 (in /etc/group).

At least then, the extracted contents of a "tar" file will show the same ownerships when copied across systems and you won't have to mess with 'chown'.

--Mark Bole Received on Mon May 17 2004 - 20:35:20 CDT