Oracle - What TNS Names file am I using?

Question

Sometimes I get Oracle connection problems because I can\'t figure out which tnsnames.ora file my database client is using.

What\'s the best way to figure this out?

Answer 1

On my development machine I have three different versions of Oracle client software. I manage the tnsnames.ora file in one of them. In the other two, I have entered in the tnsnames.ora file:

ifile=path_to_tnsnames.ora_file/tnsnames.ora

This way, if for some reason the wrong tnsnames.ora file is used by a client, it will always end up at the up-to-date version.