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Last weekend was patchday. The goal was to apply the patch 24732082 (DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 12.1.0.2.170117) to a 12.1.0.2 database on AIX. The OPatch precheck returned no error and OPatch apply was ok. The problem was the post step, the datapatch command failed with the message catconInit failed, exiting.

[email protected]:/u00/app/oracle/product/12.1.0.2/dbhome_1/OPatch/ [STRSP01] ./datapatch -verbose
SQL Patching tool version 12.1.0.2.0 Production on Sun Apr  2 08:39:35 2017
Copyright (c) 2012, 2016, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Log file for this invocation: /u00/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/sqlpatch/sqlpatch_45548440_2017_04_02_08_39_35/sqlpatch_invocati                                               on.log

Connecting to database...OK

catconInit failed, exiting

Please refer to MOS Note 1609718.1 and/or the invocation log
/u00/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/sqlpatch/sqlpatch_45548440_2017_04_02_08_39_35/sqlpatch_invocation.log
for information on how to resolve the above errors.

SQL Patching tool complete on Sun Apr  2 08:39:36 2017

The solution was described in this My Oracle Support Note: Datapatch fails with “catconInit: database is not open on the default instance” (Doc ID 2003488.1)

In the glogin.sql file  located in ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin were two lines:

set lines 400
set pages 0

After I have commented out these lines, everything runs ok.

[email protected]:/u00/app/oracle/product/12.1.0.2/dbhome_1/OPatch/ [STRSP01] ./datapatch -verbose
SQL Patching tool version 12.1.0.2.0 Production on Sun Apr  2 08:52:42 2017
Copyright (c) 2012, 2016, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Log file for this invocation: /u00/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/sqlpatch/sqlpatch_45351856_2017_04_02_08_52_42/sqlpatch_invocation.log

Connecting to database...OK
Bootstrapping registry and package to current versions...done
Determining current state...done

Current state of SQL patches:
Bundle series PSU:
  ID 170117 in the binary registry and not installed in the SQL registry

Adding patches to installation queue and performing prereq checks...
Installation queue:
  Nothing to roll back
    24732082 (DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 12.1.0.2.170117)

Installing patches...
Patch installation complete.  Total patches installed: 1

Validating logfiles...
Patch 24732082 apply: SUCCESS
  logfile: /u00/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/sqlpatch/24732082/20919987/24732082_apply_STRSP01_2017Apr02_08_53_02.log (no errors)
SQL Patching tool complete on Sun Apr  2 08:53:39 2017

Summary: Two small lines, a huge effect.

Summary: Two small lines, a big impact.