This is a bug that will be found in Oracle 10g database which has Logical Standby dataguard configured. The bug causes the Oracle process to create a very large trace file in bdump directory on both primary and standby machines.
testdb1$ ls -lth | more
total 2718432
-rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 3.5G Mar 30 11:48 testdb_p000_6158.trc
-rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 25M Mar 30 11:47 testdb_arc7_1139.trc
-rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 25M Mar 30 11:47 testdb_arc2_1129.trc
-rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 16M Mar 30 11:47 testdb_arc9_1159.trc
-rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 25M Mar 30 11:47 testdb_arc1_1127.trc
-rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 25M Mar 30 11:47 testdb_arc5_1135.trc
-rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 25M Mar 30 11:47 testdb_arc6_1137.trc
testdbb1$ tail -f testdb_p000_6158.trc
kcrrlkid: dbid:387577158 rls:2331:1497202403 rlc:738057741 thr:1 seq:27179 cia:1 tcia:0
LET: next scn before krvxrolf.
scn: 0x0000.00000000
LET: next scn after krvxrolf.
scn: 0xffff.ffffffff
kcrrlkid: dbid:387577158 rls:2331:1497202403 rlc:738057741 thr:1 seq:27179 cia:1 tcia:0
LET: next scn before krvxrolf.
scn: 0x0000.00000000
LET: next scn after krvxrolf.
scn: 0xffff.ffffffff
testdb1$ opatch lsinv -invPtrLoc $ORACLE_HOME/oraInst.loc
.....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Installed Top-level Products (3):
Oracle Database 10g 10.2.0.1.0
Oracle Database 10g Release 2 Patch Set 2 10.2.0.3.0
Oracle Database 10g Release 2 Patch Set 3 10.2.0.4.0
There are 3 products installed in this Oracle Home.
Think twice when you try to free up disk space by removing this file in Unix platform as the file is constantly written by Oracle process and those disk space will not return to the OS until you reboot the instance. Alternatively, you can use “cat /dev/null > testdb_p000_6158.trc” instead of deleting it.
From Oracle support, we can find more information about this bug...
Bug 6994160 Capture reader process constantly writing messages to trace file
Versions affected : 10.2.0.4
Platforms affected: All platforms
You can fix this bug by applying one of the patches offered by Oracle support. In fact, Bug 6994160 has been fixed in the following release:
10.2.0.5 (Server Patch Set)
10.2.0.4.1 (Patch Set Update)
10.2.0.4 Patch 2 on Windows Platforms
10.2.0.4 Data Guard Logical Recommended Patch Bundle #1
