For small patches, you will need to use Oracle OPatch. This is a Perl utility that will
automatically install/relink files and update the corresponding entry in the oraInventory file.
OPatch requires Perl version 5.6.0 or higher. Most Patches also require Java JVM and JDK 1.3
or higher so be sure these are installed.
OPatch is not installed as part of the standard install, and must be downloaded separately from
Oracle Metalink. Also it only works on Oracle 9iR2 or higher.
To download OPatch, goto here
For current Oracle patches, you must be using opatch version 1.0.0.0.53 or higher.
Once you download the file, extract it immediately under the $ORACLE_HOME directory. Also be sure
that the file opatch has 755 permissions on Unix Systems.
Once this is done, download the appropriate file, then extract. verify that both perl,java and the archiver executable (ar) are within the $PATH.
ar is required since some of the oracle libraries will be rebuilt.
At the base of the patch directory,
start the patch install by calling
$ $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch apply
DO NOT remove the patch directories after the patches have been applied. Oracle stores the old versions of files in them and they are needed if you ever want to rollback a patch.
