/etc/oraInst.loc

The oraInst.loc file is sometimes referred to as the inventory pointer file and created by the Oracle Universal Installer (or possibly more precisly by the scrtip orainstRoot.sh) when Oracle Software is installed for the first time.

This file is used (by the Oracle Universal Installer and/or opatch) to

• locate the oraInventory directory (inventory_loc)
• identify the name of the Oracle Inventory group (by default: oinstall but sometimes dba is also seen.)

$ cat /etc/oraInst.loc
inventory_loc=/opt/oracle/oraInventory
inst_group=oinstall

The location of oraInst.loc is /etc is for Linux and AIX. For Solaris, HP, Linux Itanium, it is /var/opt/oracle.

The file /etc/oraInst.loc is copied by orainstRoot.sh from $ORACLE_BASE/oraInventory/oraInst.loc.