Oracle Executables

This table lists executable programs in $ORACLE_HOME/bin (or %ORACLE_HOME%\bin on Windows) for Oracle Enterprise Edition, including shell scripts, Windows .bat files but excluding Windows DLLs or any that can't execute directly. It's not a complete list since what programs are in that directory depends on what options I chose at the time of software installation. I'm doing my best to give descriptions about each program and add some comments I consider useful or merely interesting. Many of them show Usage by typing the program name, or the name followed by some garbage argument, or -h, or sometimes help=y. "Not in 9i" means not in 9i or 10g (i.e. only in 8i).

Legend
`: Only exists on UNIX
*: Only exists on Windows

Program Name Notes
acro* Not in 9i
adapters`Running with no argument returns info about installed Oracle Net (SQL*Net) adapters. Running with path to an Oracle binary file (oracle, sqlplus,...) shows whether the binary has Oracle Net symbols in it.
agent*Possibly used in SNMP
agentctlOracle%oracle_home%Agent service Control (not in 10g)
agntsvc*Oracle%oracle_home%Agent service, used by EM
agtctl(Oracle Heterogeneous Services) Agent Control Utility See ORA-28591
asmtool10g only
asmtoolgGUI version of ASM tool
bbed* Block Browser and Editor Oracle internal use only. Not in 9i. On UNIX, you have to make it. Ref: 1, 2.
bulkmodifySee Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide, Appendix A "Syntax for LDIF and Command Line Tools". Not in 10g
cemutls10g
cfo*Configure FAN ONSFAN ONS Publisher program, 10.2.0.3 and later (see Note:405120.1)
clscfg10g
clsfmt10g
cmadmin`Not in 9i
cmctl`Not in 9i
cmgw`Not in 9i
coraenv`Oracle Environment C Shellcsh script to set up Ora Env; csh version of oraenv
crsctl, crssetupCluster Ready Services Control and Setup utilities10g
csscanCharacter Set Scanner
ctxhx*Called by intermedia server
ctxkbtc
ctxlc10g
ctxload
ctxsrvIntermedia serverNot in 10g
ctxsvc*Intermedia serviceNot in 10g
cursize`Not in 10g
dbca.batDatabase Config AssistantUsed to create and configure a database (called dbassist in 8i)
DBConsole.pmPerl Module to provide start, stop, status functionality (10g)
dbfmig`
dbfsize`Database File Size InfoIf run on redo logfiles, also reports redo block size (the same value as x$kccle.lebsz or if in archivelog mode, v$archived_log.block_size). Run on controlfiles, it also reports controlfile block size, which should be the same as db_block_size. dbfsize also tells you whether the file is filesystem or raw partition based (Quick I/O reported as raw).
dbhome`
dbma.bat10g
dbshut`Database Shutdown Script
dbsnmpDatabase Intelligent (SNMP) AgentAccording to marty.grinstead at oracle.com, "spawned when the IA is running a scheduled job". If the agent is not configured correctly, running it causes database shutdown immediate to hang. Not in 10g
dbsnmpj*Database Intelligent (SNMP) Agent. Not in 10g
dbsnmpwd.batNot in 10g
dbstart`Database Startup Script
dbua`
dbvDatafile VerificationSee Oracle Utilities
debugproxyNot in 10g
demobld`Not in 10g
demodrop`Not in 10g
deploync
dgmgrlData Guard Manager
dropjava
dumpsga`
dsml2ldif*XML Parser utility to generate LDAP ldif files
e2eme10g
echodo`In shell script, echo the command followed by run it
ela10g
emagent, emagtm, emca.bat, emctl.bat, emdctl, emtgtctl, emwd.bat10g, EM-related
encaps*Not in 10g
encsvc*Oracle SNMP Peer Encapsulator service
esmEnterprise Security ManagerNot in 10g
expExportSee Oracle Utilities
expdbData Pump Export10g
extjob10g
extjobo10g
extractlib`
extprocExternal Procedure
extusrupgradeUpgrade externally authenticated SSL users. 10gR2
fmputl`
fmputlhp`
gatekeeperNot in 9i
genagtsh`
genautab`Not in 9i
genclntsh`Generate Client Shared Libraries
genclntst`
genksms`Generate ksms.s, the assembly language source file listing contents of SGA fixed region. E.g., .set kcrfal_,sgabeg+19072 says kcrfl (redo allocation) structure is stored in the fixed region, 19072 bytes from the beginning of SGA. (J.Morle Scaling Oracle8i, pp.260-1)
gennfgt`
gennttab`
genoccish`
gensyslib`
helpinsSQL*Plus Help InstallationBeginning with Oracle8, only Help for SQL*Plus, not SQL, is installed.
hsallociHeterogeneous Agent (Server) with Driver for Oracle using OCI
hsdepxaHeterogeneous Agent (Server) with XA compliant Distributed External Procedure driver
hsodbcHeterogeneous Agent (Server) ODBC driver
hsolefs*Heterogeneous Agent (Server) OLE driver
hsolesql*Heterogeneous Agent (Server) OLE driver
hsotsHeterogeneous Agent (Server) with XA compliant OTS driver
idl2irInterface Definition Language to Interface Repository converterNot in 9i
i*.flt*various Graphic Import FiltersTo find out, copy them to another filename with EXE as filename extension and look at their properties in Windows Explorer. They're all from Stellent, Inc.
impImport utilitySee Oracle Utilities
impdbData Pump Import10g
irepInterface RepositoryNot in 9i
isqlplusctl, isqlplussvc*iSqlplus Control or Service10g only. In 9i, you simply uncomment the line in oracle_apache.conf and start Apache. In 10g, you have to run isqlplusctl start to start the J2EE process (Windows service).
java2idlJava to Interface Definition Language converter (not in 9i)
java2iiopJava to Internet Inter-Orb Protocol converter (not in 9i)
java2rmi_iiop`Java to Remote Method Invocation Internet Inter-Orb Protocol converter (not in 9i)
jpubJPublisherNot in 10g
kfod"OSM Discovery  utility" (from oraInventory/logs/installActions.log or make output)10g. Probably should be called ASM Disk Discovery utility. Note:359266.1 and Bug:4531822 have a little more info.
kgmgr`Forum:486682.995: "a proprietary utility used by several of our client products"
kgpmon`
launch*Program LauncherE.g., on Windows, Oracle Net Assistant is not started by netasst program, which doesn't exist; instead it's launched by: %ORACLE_HOME%\bin\launch.exe "%ORACLE_HOME%\network\tools" netasst.cl. There're many other .cl files scattered around which basically call jrew somejarfile.
launchem*EM LauncherNot in 10g
lbuilder10g
lcsscan10g
ldapaddSee Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide, Chapter "Managing Directory Entries"
ldapaddmtsee above
ldapbindsee above
ldapcomparesee above
ldapdeletesee above
ldapmoddnsee above
ldapmodifysee above
ldapmodifymtsee above
ldapsearchsee above
ldifmigratorOID Migration tool9iUNIX or 10g. Migrates data from application-specific repositories into Oracle Internet Directory.
ldifwriteSee Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide, Appendix A "Syntax for LDIF and Command Line Tools". Not in 10g
lmsgenNLS Binary Message File GenerationUsed to generate .msb files like oraus.msb
loadjavaTo load java classes into the database
loadpsp
localconfig10g
locserv
lsnodesList Nodeslists all nodes or a specific node in a RAC configuration if RAC is installed (10g or conditionally installed in 9i)
lsnrctlTNS Listener ControlLaunches tnslsnr process. See tnslsnr below. Be careful when you type lsnrctl stop (or reload) on client side, unless DBA has set password on the server side (see Item 15 on my Idiosyncrasies page).
lxchknlb`
lxegenNLS Calendar
lxinstNLS Data Installation
mapsga`
maxmem`Maximum Memory for a processOracle process virtual memory size is limited by the smaller of maxmem and ulimit -m. Windows doesn't have this utility simply because a process on Windows can potentially use all memory minus kernel non-paged pool.
mergelib`Not in 9i
migOracle Migration/UpgradingNot in 10g. 9i documentation says mig "converts the data dictionary and structures of an Oracle7 database into Oracle9i format". 10g doesn't support direct upgrade from Oracle7 so it stops shipping this tool.
migprepMigration/Upgrading PreparationNot in 10g. See above comments.
mkstore10g
modifyprops*Not in 9i
NAEGEN*Diffie Hellman Parameter GenerationNot in 10g
namesctlOracle Names Server ControlNot in 10g
ncomp
netasst`Network AssistantSee launch above for how to start it on Windows (Not in 9i)
netcaNet Configuration Assistant9iUNIX or 10g
netca_deinstNet Configuration Assistant Deinstall10g
netlaunch`
netmgr`
nidDB New IDChange DBID so a database cloned using the traditional method (instead of DUPLICATEd by RMAN) can register with the same RMAN catalog as the source DB. The syntax is nid target=sys/syspassword. (It's not nid target="sys/syspassword as sysdba" even if you need as sysdba for sqlplus). After running nid, you have to open resetlogs, and database resetlogs time and v$thread.enable_time will both be updated.
nmei, nmelproc, nmeo, nmesrvc, nmesrvcops, nmetm, nmo, nmocat, nmuct, nmupm10g
nmudgNot in 10g
nmumigrate (8i), nmumigr8 (9i)Oracle Data Gatherer or DG Cartridge MigrationNot in 10g
oadjNot in 9i
oadutilObject Activation Daemon UtilityIn Discoverer, type oadutil list to check services registered with OAD (not in 9i)
ociconv`OCI Conversion
ocmNot in 10g
ocm_oratclsh`Not in 10g
ocopy*Oracle file copy programAllegedly the only tool you should use to copy open datafiles. There's no difference between filesystem files copied by this and by DOS copy command. But if you use raw "files" (raw partitions used as Oracle datafiles), ocopy (or RMAN) has to be used.
ocrcheck, ocrconfig, ocrdumpOracle Cluster Registry Check, Config and Dump utilities10g
ocssd10g
odisrvNot in 10g
odisrvregNot in 10g
odma`Not in 9i
odpreg10g
oemapp
oemautil.bat*Oracle Intelligent Agent
oemctl.bat*
oemeventOracle Intelligent Agent
oemPingOmsInternal.bat*
oerr`Oracle ErrorSee my freeware Windowsoerr
oidadmin`Oracle Internet Directory AdminOn Windows, you launch Oracle Directory Manager (a jrew application) in Integrated Management Tools program group.
oidca10g
oidpasswd
oidprovtoolOID Provisioning Tool9i UNIX or 10g. Used to create a subscription profile for OID subscribers such as Portal.
oidreconcile
ojspcOracle JSP CompilerNot in 10g
ojvmjava9i UNIX or 10g
okdstryKerberos utility
okinitKerberos utility
oklistKerberos utility
olsadmintool10g
olsoidsync10g
onrsdOracle Names client cacheNot in 10g
onsctl10g
oo4ocodewiz*Oracle Objects for OLE Code Wizard for stored procedures
operfcfg*Oracle Perfmon Config
oracg
oracle Oracle RDBMS Kernel Executable On UNIX, if dedicated configuration, every client process such as sqlplus or Toad, connects to tnslsnr, which fork()'s and then exec()'s oracle kernel program, $ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle. The oracle process thus created is called a server process, or a shadow process to emphasize the client-server two-task nature. This server process is renamed to oracleSID (DESCRIPTION=(LOCAL=... for easy identification and troubleshooting. But its program (process text) is still this oracle binary. You should never directly run this binary; or you may get ORA-600 [12235] (See Note:33174.1). You should also avoid changing the process priority according to Oracle. But Steve Adams tested and noticed it may improve DBWn performance if its priority is increased. You should also avoid stripping the oracle binary or you may lose symbol information in trace files. But you can certainly run nm on it to get symbols such as sgabeg in this file. The only way for us to find all undocumented SQL hints is by running strings on it.

On Windows, there's always only one oracle.exe process for one instance. Each server "process" is just a Windows thread inside this process. If you have multiple Oracle instances running in Windows, you can identify the process for a specific instance by tools such as tlist.

OracleAdNetConnect*OracleAdNetConnect MFC Application
OracleAdNetTest*
oradim*Used to create a Windows service named OracleServiceSID
oradism`Oracle Dynamic Intimate Shared MemoryUsed on Solaris to configure Dynamic ISM, so as to get the benefit of shared page table between processes while allowing for SGA to be not completely locked in physical memory
oraenv`Setup Oracle Environment; run as . oraenv and pass SID to it
orakill*Usage: orakill instance_name v$process.spid. Used to kill a specific thread inside oracle.exe process. Apparently orakill does a little more than just killing the thread because using a non-Oracle tool such as Sysinternals's Process Explorer to kill a thread in oracle.exe doesn't always make a hanging session and its lock go away; you may have to manually run oradebug wakeup 1 to wake up pmon (which should clear the lock and v$session / v$process, but the client app may still hang). If you can't run orakill for any reason, use a tool like Process Explorer, followed by manual pmon wakeup.
orapipeIn 10g. Read Oracle XML Developer's Kit Programmer's Guide, Chapter "Pipeline Definition Language for Java"
orapkiOracle Public Key Infrastructure utilityIn 10g. Read Oracle Database Advanced Security Administrator's Guide, Chapter "Configuring Secure Sockets Layer Authentication"
orapwdOracle Password utilityUsed to create a password file for SYSDBA and SYSOPER connection. On Windows, you can also use oradim as a second choice (you have to delete and recreate if the password already exists).
orastack*Oracle Stack modificationUsed to resize the stack of an Oracle executable file such as oracle.exe, tnslsnr.exe (one way of preventing ORA-12500). Type the command at DOS to see an excellent description. (Not equivalent to pstack available on some UNIXes used to dump stack trace of a running process, but more like Solaris command ppgsz -o stack=... except it works on file not process)
oratclshOracle TCL ShellTCL programming language shell for Oracle. In spite of Oracle's advocacy, few people actually used it and now it's silently deprecated by Oracle, probably in favor of Perl. One trivial usage is to retrieve error messages on any OS (see examples here). Extensive use can be found in J. Morle's Scaling Oracle8i. Not in 10g Windows and not working in 10g Linux/UNIX.
oraxml
oraxsl
osagent*Visibroker OS AgentType osagent -? (or -h) to see Usage (not in 9i)
osfind*Visibroker utility to find OS agents (not in 9i)
osh`
otrccolOracle Trace CollectionSee Oracle Designing and Tuning for Performance, Chapter "Using Oracle Trace". Not in 10g since Oracle Trace is deprecated.
otrccrefsee above
otrcfmtsee above
otrcrepsee above
ott
ott8Not in 10g
owhat`Oracle whatRuns UNIX what command on programs listed in arguments to find patches; doesn't work well; suggest you run what directly. Not in 10g
owm`Oracle Wallet ManagerWindows has owm.dll and owm.cl, but not owm.exe or .bat
pagntsrv*Not in 10g
passwdconvertNot in 10g
printIOR*Not in 9i
procProc*C/C++ compiler
procob, procob18, procob18_32, procob32Not in 10g
procui*Not in 10g
profor`Not in 10g
proxyserv`Not in 10g
publishNot in 9i
pupbldProduct User Profile BuildCreates Product User Profile tables for SQL*Plus
rawutl10g
relink`Not in 10g
removeNot in 9i
remtool`Not in 10g
repo_mig10g
rmanRecover Manager
rtsora`, rtsora32`Not in 10g
runInstaller`Not in 10g. 10g Windows uses %oracle_home%\oui\bin\setup.exe.
sbttest`
schema
schemasyncNot in 10g
sclsspawn10g
searchctl10g
selecthome.bat* and others10g only. 10g doesn't have Home Selector in Start menu. Instead launch OUI to select Home. OUI runs selecthome.bat internally.
sess_shNot in 9i
setlinks*You can use setlinks /d to show Windows devices. Not in 9i
sqljSQLJ engineNot in 10g (SqlJ is deprecated)
sqlldrSQL*LoaderSee Oracle Utilities
sqlplusSQL*Plus10g has two new command line options: -C sets SQL*Plus compatibility version; -L attempts log on just once.
sqlplusw*SQL*Plus for Windows
statusnc
svrmgrlServer ManagerNot in 9i. Use sqlplus '/ as sysdba' instead (substitute " for ' in Windows)
symfind`Symbol Finder.Documented in 10g Admin's Reference for UNIX.
sysresv`System Resources ViewerShows IPC resources: shared memory segments and semaphores
tdvapp*Not in 10g
tkprofUsed to get more meaningful output from a session trace file
tnslsnrTNS listenerYou run this program from lsnrctl. Only run this program directly, as root, if you start listener on a port below 1024 on UNIX; even in this case, stopping the listener can be done with lsnrctl.
tnspingTNS PingNote you can have two arguments, the second being the number of times the listener is pinged.
transxXML TranslatorSee XML Developer's Kit Programmer's Guide, Chapter "TransX Utility"
trcasstSQL*Net Trace AssistantUsed to analyze SQL*Net trace file
trcsessSession TraceIn 10g. See Database Performance Tuning Guide, Chapter "Using Application Tracing Tools". It merges multiple SQL trace files for a session to be used by tkprof. Useful in Shared Server session trace. Before 10g, try OraSRP.
trcfmt`See otrcfmt. Not in 10g
trcroute`Trace RouteHopefully it can offer more insight than tnsping into a failed Oracle Net connection.
tstshm`Test Shared Memory
umuUser Migration UtilityMigrate database users to a directory
unzipdecompressing tool
vbdebugVisiDebuggerNot in 9i
vbjNot in 9i
vbj_convertNot in 9i
vbjcNot in 9i
vdoshell*Not in 10g
vipca10g
vmq*Not in 10g
vppcntlOracle Data Gatherer Executable"Control utility for the Data Gatherer" (marty.grinstead at oracle.com). Not in 9i
vppdcOracle Intelligent Agent Executable"Data Gatherer - collects data for Performance Manager and Capacity Planner" (marty.grinstead at oracle.com). Not in 9i
vtushell*Not in 10g
wrapPL/SQL code WrapperUsed to encrypt code to protect source code. Until 10g, string literals are not protected; "Hello world!" will be shown as "1Hello world!" in xxx_SOURCE.
xml
xmlcg
xpautune*Not in 10g
xpcoin*Not in 10g
xpksh*Not in 10g
xpui*Not in 10g
xsl10g
xsql
xsqlproxy*
xvm10g
zip*

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