Export from Oracle 10g database with 11g client - detailed

Question

Database Version : 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0

Client Version: 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 (windows 7 64bit)

When I try to export (exp) a table from database: exp usr/pass@remote_db file=f.dmp tables=table

I get the following error:

EXP-00008: ORACLE error 904 encountered
ORA-00904: "POLTYP": invalid
identifier EXP-00000: Export terminated unsuccessfully

I know this question was answered earlier (the answer is "install 10g client to use its exp utility"), but I still didn't understand correctly:

1. Is Oracle 10g client 10.2.0.4 is ok for this? Do I need to setup TNS etc?

2. If I use the previous command to export the DB will the system automatically use the Ora10g client exp tool?

Answer 1

1) Yes, the 10.2.0.4 client would be OK. Yes, assuming that you use a tnsnames.ora file to connect to the database, you would need to configure a tnsnames.ora file in the Oracle Home for the newly installed 10.2.0.4 client or set the TNS_ADMIN environment variable to point at a single tnsnames.ora file for all Oracle Homes on the server. If you don't use a tnsnames.ora file to connect to the database, you would not need to configure one.

2) The command you posted will use the operating system's name resolution logic to determine which executable to invoke. Generally, that will be the executable in whichever Oracle Home is first in the operating system's PATH environment variable. Of course, you could specify an explicit path or change the current directory to the %Oracle Home%\bin of the 10.2.0.4 Oracle Home if that home was not first in the path.