Symptoms

After applying a patchset, the post install documentation instructs you to run the $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/catpatch.sql script. The script does not run and instead produces the error below:

SQL> @catpatch.sql
SP2-0734: unknown command begining "catpatch.s..." ....

Cause

Solution

The problem is with the display terminal keyboard settings. The sqlplus session had trouble interpreting the "@" sign, because it was assigned in the terminal to the "kill" setting. The catpatch.sql script was supposed to be run as "@catpatch.sql" and since the "@" sign had a completely different meaning for this OS session, sqlplus only saw "catpatch.sql".

The solution is to change the display terminal keyboard setting of the kill character to something else. For example:

# stty kill ^u

After making this change the script is interpreted correctly and runs as it should.

TST:[/oracle]$sqlplus /nolog

SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.8.0 - Production on Tue Apr 14 10:23:50 2009

Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

SQL> conn sgj/XXX@ZX1;
SP2-0042: unknown command "ZX1" - rest of line ignored.
SQL> conn / as sysdba
Connected.
SQL> conn rman/XXX
ERROR:
ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied
SQL> conn rman/XXX@rman
SP2-0042: unknown command "rman" - rest of line ignored.