Identifying Your Oracle Database Software Release

             Oracle Database continues to evolve and can require maintenance, Oracle periodically produces new releases. Not all customers initially subscribe to a new release or require specific maintenance for their existing release. As a result, multiple releases of the product exist simultaneously.

Release Number Format

1. The first digit is the most general identifier. It represents a major new version of the software that contains significant new functionality.

2. The second digit represents a maintenance release level. Some new features may also be included.

3.The third digit reflects the release level of the Oracle Application Server (OracleAS).

4.The fourth digit identifies a release level specific to a component. Different components can have different numbers in this position depending upon, for example, component patch sets or interim releases.

5.The fifth digit identifies a platform-specific release. Usually this is a patch set. When different platforms require the equivalent patch set, this digit will be the same across the affected platforms.