LD_LIBRARY_PATH is not set! in alert_XE.log

Always check out the original article at http://www.oraclequirks.com for latest comments, fixes and updates.

This morning i discovered the following messages in the alertXE.log, located in the bdump folder of a xubuntu virtual machine:

Fri Apr 10 15:01:15 2009
Starting ORACLE instance (normal)
Cannot determine all dependent dynamic libraries for /proc/self/exe
Unable to find dynamic library libocr10.so in search paths
RPATH = /ade/aime1_build2101/oracle/has/lib/:/ade/aime1_build2101/oracle/lib/:/ade/aime1_build2101/oracle/has/lib/:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH is not set!
The default library directories are /lib and /usr/lib
Unable to find dynamic library libocrb10.so in search paths
Unable to find dynamic library libocrutl10.so in search paths
Unable to find dynamic library libocrutl10.so in search paths
LICENSE_MAX_SESSION = 0
LICENSE_SESSIONS_WARNING = 0
Picked latch-free SCN scheme 2
Using LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_10 parameter default value as USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST
Autotune of undo retention is turned on.
IMODE=BR
ILAT =10
LICENSE_MAX_USERS = 0
SYS auditing is disabled
ksdpec: called for event 13740 prior to event group initialization
Starting up ORACLE RDBMS Version: 10.2.0.1.0.
...

After a quick search on the web, i read this posting from Mohammad, so i concluded i was not the first one to see this error...
He suggests to set the variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH in the .bash_profile or .profile of the oracle user, however i preferred to change the main startup script located in /etc/init.d containing the settings for most of the Oracle variables, as shown in the image:



After fixing oracle-xe, the alert_XE.log file doesn't show anymore the warning messages:

Fri Apr 10 15:06:43 2009
Starting ORACLE instance (normal)
LICENSE_MAX_SESSION = 0
LICENSE_SESSIONS_WARNING = 0
Picked latch-free SCN scheme 2
Using LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_10 parameter default value as USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST
Autotune of undo retention is turned on.
IMODE=BR
ILAT =10
LICENSE_MAX_USERS = 0
SYS auditing is disabled
ksdpec: called for event 13740 prior to event group initialization
Starting up ORACLE RDBMS Version: 10.2.0.1.0.
...

Someone may argue that changing the script does not guarantee against future installations (or re-installations), however hopefully Oracle will fix the bug in the meantime, so Oracle 11XE will not be affected by this flaw.

In the end i'd be curious to know which functionality was affected by the bug because this Oracle instance has been running for quite some time without showing any particular problems.