Sqlplus login error when using bash variables: SP2-0306: Invalid option

Question

I have a bash script that connects to an oracle 10g database.

In a first step it takes some variables from a "config" file with the following command

. /path/to/my/configfile.ini

In the config file there are some variables:

export USRID=myUser
export USRID_PASS=myPassword
export USR_PASS="$USRID/$USRID_PASS@myDatabase"

Then it actually connects through sqlplus using the command:

sqlplus -s $usr_pass

Terrible Security and Design issues aside (this script has been around for 5 years). This is actually doing its job in one of our UNIX servers, but not in another.

When I run the script with bash -x, I can see that the command expanded to:

sqlplus -s myUser/myPassword@myDatabase

...which should do fine (and is actually working in one server), but the response in the failing server is:

ERROR: ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied

SP2-0306: Invalid option. Usage: CONN[ECT] [logon] [AS {SYSDBA|SYSOPER}] where ::= [/][@] | SP2-0306: Invalid option.

I'm guessing it has to do more with bash than with oracle, but I'm no bash expert. Is there some configuration or detail I'm missing?

EDIT:

Trying to pin down the problem a bit more, I'm now running two versions of the script in a third development server, and in different tests, the login works if i do it with:

sqlplus -s $usrid/$usrid_pass@myDatabase

but not when i try:

sqlplus -s $usr_pass

So its a bit annoying.

Besides that, i'll have to check on te config file synchronization process... I'll let you know when i get to something new. Thanks everybody.

Answer 1

The message is pretty clear:

• you've successfully contacted a database
• the credentials supplied are wrong

This indicates there isn't really anything wrong with your client configuration.

So, that leaves you with

• the user/pw combination is wrong
• you've not contacted the database you think you have

Possibilites:

• Make sure you can connect with the credentials supplied from the command line.
• Use tnsping mydatabase to check the host and instance you're contacting, verify it's correct. Output from this command should tell you the host, port, and instance/service you're connecting to. If it's wrong, check the tnsnames.ora file for this alias.
• As @OMG Ponies suggests, if you're using 11g, make sure the case in your passwords is correct

Answer 2

This worked for me: connect user/"password" I think if the password contains special characters like '@' we need to use "" for the password.

Answer 3

Daft question, but are you sure you are using the bash shell on both unix servers ?

I'd try replacing

export USR_PASS="$USRID/$USRID_PASS@myDatabase"

with export USR_PASS="${USRID}/${USRID_PASS}@myDatabase"

to make sure the variables get interpreted correctly

As a final, exotic though, does the password contain any characters other than basic alpha-numeric and punctuation. Because 10g isn't case sensitive, a lowercase password gets converted to uppercase, which can cause odd effects with things like accented characters