Identify the local Oracle Client version in a Windows machine

Hi,

I need to identify the version of the local oracle client in a Windows machine. The requirement is to get the Client version using a VB program and then do required database export only if the client version is the desired one.

The export utility is identified from the ORACLE_HOME\bin folder, but it is not possible to identify the version of the selected export utility.

The problem is that there is no standard product versioning info (using Windows version.dll) for Oracle exes.

It does not seem feasible to capture the log of SQLPlus or so to get the client version to get the client version.

Is there any environment setting for the Client version, any registry setting or any file that has the client details? Any file names that are maintained properly with version numbers across different versions of Oracle from 7 to 10g?

beesAsked:
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BobMcConnect With a Mentor Commented:
On Windows, the export binaries were named according to version, exp73, exp80, and since 8i, plain old exp. There was a similar convention for versions of sqlplus.

The only way I can think of to reliably return the client version, would to be do "EXP HELP=Y" and parse the first line of output.
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johnsoneSenior Oracle DBACommented:
I believe that with the introduction of the Universal Installer, this is nearly impossible.

According to Oracle the best way to determine this is by running the Universal Installer and checking the Installed Products.

Another way, which may work, is to look in the C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory\Components\oracle.client directory.  There should be a directory in there that tells the client version.  If a patch has been installed that only upgraded certain components this would probably not be reflected here.  It should give you the base version though.

Of course, this implies that users are not smart enough th change the inventory location.  I am not sure if it can be done in Windows, but it s pretty easy to do in the Unix world.
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