This chapter provides the definition of a utility. The actual utilities are listed, as well as a discovery mechanism that will allow anyone to find them in future releases of Oracle.

Due to the complexity of most utilities, they cannot all be discussed in great detail. The rest of the book will explore the most useful utilities. This chapter will only provide the complete lists for the different Oracle versions.
Definition of a Utility
Webster's Dictionary© defines a utility as the following:

• The quality or condition of being useful; a useful article or device.
This book extends this definition into the Oracle world. Tools are supplied with Oracle that can be very useful for DBAs, developers, and system administrators to maintain or enhance the Oracle product. For this reason, they will be known as “Oracle Utilities” in what follows.

A utility is something that is useful in a way that helps you do your job. It could be an operating system executable file, a Windows bat file, a UNIX shell script, an Oracle supplied package, or a feature of an existing tool that is not widely known.

What is a Hidden Utility?
 

A hidden utility is not one whose file is physically hidden in the operating system. In fact, it may not be an executable, but instead a PL/SQL source or part of another utility. A hidden utility is one that is rarely revealed and its existence is unknown to most Oracle professionals. Hidden utilities are either undocumented or documentation is difficult to find.

Some executables are not supplied as part of the base Oracle installation. By default, some PL/SQL packages do not exist in the database, although the code to load them exists in the operating system. Other PL/SQL packages are only available via an Oracle MetaLink (Trace Analyzer). Also, certain PL/SQL packages are only accessible to the SYS user by default (dbms_system) in some Oracle versions.

While some utilities are included for reasons known only to Oracle Corporation, they are indeed present in the Oracle environment and can be used to solve specific problems.
 

The above is an excerpt from Oracle Utilities - Using Hidden Programs, Import/Export, SQL Loader, oradebug, Dbverify, Tkprof and More by Rampant TechPress.

For more details on Oracle utilities, see the book "Advanced Oracle Utilities" by Bert Scalzo, Donald K. Burleson, and Steve Callan. You can buy it direct from the publisher for 30% off directly from Rampant TechPress.

For more details and scripts, see my new book " Oracle Tuning: The Definitive Reference", over 900 pages of BC's favorite tuning tips & scripts.  You can buy it direct from the publisher for 30%-off and get instant access to the code depot.