ORA-30094: failed to find the time zone data file for version 11 in $ORACLE_HOME/oracore/zoneinfo

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My first close encounter with the brand new Oracle XE11 returned the following error upon importing a dump that a customer sent me for preparing a demo.

ORA-39097: Data Pump job encountered unexpected error -30094
ORA-39065: unexpected master process exception in DISPATCH
ORA-30094: failed to find the time zone data file for version 11
in $ORACLE_HOME/oracore/zoneinfo

The full story is in this thread in the OTN XE forum.
The bottom line is summarized as follows: if you hit this problem when attempting to import a dump taken with a different version of Oracle, for instance 11.2.0.1.0, as it was in my case, the cause is in the missing timezone files in the folder $ORACLE_HOME/oracore/zoneinfo, because XE11 ships only with the following pair of files:

timezlrg_14.dat
timezone_14.dat

The not-so-quick but certainly very dirty solution is to download a full-blown version of the database, install it, copy over the missing files to the aforementioned folder ensuring that the pair of files ending with the number contained in the line I highlighted in red above are present. Or tell the other party to send you a nicely compressed archive containing the files taken from his/her server.

Thereafter retry the import and voilá, XE11 is served.

Why didn't supply the missing files with XE11?
Don't ask me.

If you can't or don't want to install the full database temporarily, chances are that you can at least import the "naked" objects taken from the dump file using the parameter CONTENT=METADATA_ONLY, this avoids the failure upon importing table data and probably is better than nothing.You may also manage to import some of the table data by excluding the table(s) containing the column(s) of type TIMESTAMP WITH [LOCAL] TIMEZONE, supposing you know in advance their names and you disabled any foreign keys beforehand, but clearly this is very far from being an optimal solution.

Thanks to mr. Carter for putting me on the right track.

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