Oracle RAC - .bash_profile of the user oracle

category: solutionz · date: 2016-12-31 · updated: 2026-10-02 · author: LALA

Oracle RAC Solution · Config document · referenced from Database creation and user environments

noteThe if tests in this file compare against strings in typographic quotes (“oracle”, “/bin/ksh”). They can never be true, so the ulimit lines never run. The file is shown as it was; do not copy that block.

The login profile of the database owner oracle. It sets the environment for the database home and the local instance, and defines the two aliases that switch the same shell to the Grid Infrastructure home and back.

Item	Value
Path	`/home/oracle/.bash_profile`
Shown here	`oradb01`
Deployed on	`oradb01` and `oradb02`, two lines differ
Read by	every login shell of `oracle`, for example `su - oracle`
Owner and mode	not in the notes
Used with	grid_env and db_env

The file

bash

# Settings specific to the user "oracle"
umask 022

# Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi

# User specific environment and startup programs
if [ $USER = “oracle” ]; then
if [ $SHELL = “/bin/ksh” ]; then
ulimit -p 16384
ulimit -n 65536
else
ulimit -u 16384 -n 65536
fi
fi

# Oracle Settings
TMP=/tmp; export TMP
TMPDIR=$TMP; export TMPDIR

ORACLE_HOSTNAME=oradb01.example.net; export ORACLE_HOSTNAME
ORACLE_UNQNAME=clsdb; export ORACLE_UNQNAME
ORACLE_BASE=/data/u01/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_SID=clsdb1; export ORACLE_SID
ORACLE_HOME=/data/u01/app/oracle/db11204; export ORACLE_HOME
ORACLE_TERM=xterm; export ORACLE_TERM
GRID_HOME=/data/u01/app/grid11204; export GRID_HOME
DB_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/db11204; export DB_HOME

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
CLASSPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/JRE:$ORACLE_HOME/jlib:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib; export CLASSPATH

BASE_PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH:$HOME/bin; export BASE_PATH
PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$BASE_PATH; export PATH

alias sql='sqlplus / as sysdba'
alias grid_env='. /home/oracle/grid_env'
alias db_env='. /home/oracle/db_env'

On the second node the notes show only the two lines that differ:

Host	Line	Value
`oradb01`	`ORACLE_HOSTNAME`	`oradb01.example.net`
`oradb02`	`ORACLE_HOSTNAME`	`oradb02.example.net`
`oradb01`	`ORACLE_SID`	`clsdb1`
`oradb02`	`ORACLE_SID`	`clsdb2`

The typographic quotes

The block under "User specific environment and startup programs" looks pasted from a formatted document: the quotes around oracle and /bin/ksh are the curly characters “ and ”, not the ASCII ". To the shell they are ordinary characters and part of the word. The first test therefore compares the user name oracle with the eight-character string “oracle”, which is never equal, and nothing inside the outer if runs: neither the ksh branch nor the else branch. No error is printed, which is why it went unnoticed.

The consequence is small, because the limits do not depend on this file. The hard and soft limits of oracle come from limits.conf, and /etc/profile.local carries a working block of the same kind, with ASCII quotes and with other values (131072). The block here is dead text.

The other lines

Line	What it does
`umask 022`	Files created by `oracle` are readable by group and others
`ORACLE_HOSTNAME`	The public name of the node, differs per node
`ORACLE_UNQNAME=clsdb`	The unique name of the database
`ORACLE_SID`	The local instance, `clsdb1` or `clsdb2`
`GRID_HOME`, `DB_HOME`	Not read by Oracle. They are the two values `grid_env` and `db_env` copy into `ORACLE_HOME`
`BASE_PATH`	The `PATH` as it was before any Oracle directory was added, plus `/usr/sbin` and `$HOME/bin`. `PATH` is always rebuilt from it, so switching homes replaces the Oracle `bin` directory and does not pile up entries
`alias sql`	`sqlplus / as sysdba`, operating system authentication through the group `dba`
`alias grid_env`, `alias db_env`	Source the two environment files into the current shell

Checked against Oracle AI Database 26ai

As built	Today
`umask 022` in the profile of the software owner	Still required, in the same words in the 11.2 and the 26ai installation guides
`ulimit` block in the profile	Not in the 11.2.0.4-era or the current guides. Limits are set in `limits.conf` only and checked with `ulimit -Sn`, `-Hn`, `-Su`, `-Hu`
`ORACLE_UNQNAME` exported for the database	DBCA no longer needs `ORACLE_UNQNAME` set in the environment

The block that does not work is also the block that is not needed.