Does PSU Released For Oracle Change The Database Version/Fifth Digit? (Answer is NO)

Intro to Patch Set Updates (PSU) [ID 854428.1] - Original

2.3 Baseline Version for Easier Tracking
Oracle associates a version number to the patch. The fifth number of the database version is incremented for each PSU. For example, the initial PSU is version 10.2.0.4.1, the next PSU for Release 10.2.0.4 will be 10.2.0.4.2, and so on.

This enables customers and Oracle Support to refer to just one number, the version, rather than a list of one-off patches or sets of bundles that have been applied.

Any new one-off patches are requested on the five-number version number.


Does PSU Released For Oracle 10gR2 (10.2.0.4)and 11g R1 (11.10.7) Change The Database Version/Fifth Digit ? [ID 861152.1] - Updated through Metalink

Applies to:
Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition - Version: 10.2.0.4 to 11.1.0.7
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Goal
This article helps to find whether PSU released for Oracle Database Server 10gR2 ( 10.2.0.4 ) and 11gR2 (11.1.0.7) change the database version.
Solution

Answer is NO.

The PSU i.e 10.2.0.4.x and 11.1.0.7.x released for Oracle Database Server version 10.2.0.4.0 and 11.1..0.7.0 respectively does NOT change the database version . That means PSU 10.2.0.4.x and 11.1.0.7.x ( where x is the fifth digit ) does NOT change the 5th digit of the Oracle Database Server version.

After applying the PSU 10.2.0.4.x and 11.1.0.7.x "opatch lsinventory" still shows the version as 10.2.0.4.0 for Oracle 10g R2 a nd 11.1.0.7 for Oracle 11g R1.

PSU also does not change the version of oracle binaries (like sqlplus, exp/imp etc.)

It was suggested that starting in the October 2009 release of the PSU that the version number would be updated in the binaries and dba_registry. Development determined that would not be possible for current releases as it also would require a change the the OUI. Therefore, this will not occur on any PSU release prior to 11.2 and possibly not until the 1st patchset of 11.2

[oracle@vmxdb01 view_recompile]$ sqlplus '/ as sysdba'

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production on Sun Dec 6 09:43:15 2009

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Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> select * from registry$history;

ACTION_TIME                    ACTION     NAMESPACE  VERSION           ID COMMENTS             BUNDLE_SER
------------------------------ ---------- ---------- ---------- --------- -------------------- ----------
06-DEC-09 09.34.25.885126 AM   APPLY      SERVER     10.2.0.4           2 PSU 10.2.0.4.2       PSU
06-DEC-09 09.38.42.581477 AM   CPU                                6452863 view recompilation

SQL> select * from v$version;

BANNER
----------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Prod
PL/SQL Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production
CORE    10.2.0.4.0      Production
TNS for Linux: Version 10.2.0.4.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 10.2.0.4.0 - Production