Oracle 18c opatch util cleanup not working

Question

System:

[oracle@hostname:/opt/oraclegrid/18]$ uname -a
SunOS hostname 5.11 11.4.24.75.2 sun4v sparc sun4v

Database:

Oracle 18c 18.10 (April 2020 patch), RacOneNode setup

Opatch

OPatch Version: 12.2.0.1.21

I found out, that a .patch_storage folder in GRID/DB homes takes really much space on file system. I tried to use opatch util cleanup utility (this utility should clean this folder) but nothing happened. Here is output:

[oracle@hostname:/opt/oraclegrid/18]$ du -hs .patch_storage/
 4.1G   .patch_storage
[oracle@hostname:/opt/oraclegrid/18]$ opatch util cleanup
Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 12.2.0.1.21
Copyright (c) 2020, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.


Oracle Home       : /opt/oraclegrid/18
Central Inventory : /opt/oraInventory
   from           : /opt/oraclegrid/18/oraInst.loc
OPatch version    : 12.2.0.1.21
OUI version       : 12.2.0.4.0
Log file location : /opt/oraclegrid/18/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch2020-09-13_14-47-13PM_1.log

Invoking utility "cleanup"
OPatch will clean up 'restore.sh,make.txt' files and 'scratch,backup' directories.
You will be still able to rollback patches after this cleanup.
Do you want to proceed? [y|n]
y
User Responded with: Y

Backup area for restore has been cleaned up. For a complete list of files/directories
deleted, Please refer log file.

OPatch succeeded.
[oracle@hostname:/opt/oraclegrid/18]$ du -hs .patch_storage/
 4.1G   .patch_storage

Log output:

[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:14 PM] [INFO]    CUP_LOG: Trying to load HomeOperations object
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:14 PM] [INFO]    CUP_LOG: HomeOperations provider not available
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:14 PM] [INFO]    CUP_LOG: This is unusual state. HomeOperations object is null, but it should not be null if HomeOperations create went thru. CUP is not available
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:14 PM] [INFO]    OPatch invoked as follows: 'util cleanup -invPtrLoc /opt/oraclegrid/18/oraInst.loc '
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:14 PM] [INFO]    Runtime args: [-Xmx1536m, -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError, -XX:HeapDumpPath=/opt/oraclegrid/18/cfgtoollogs/opatch, -DCommonLog.LOG_SESSION_ID=, -DCommonLog.COMMAND_NAME=ut
il, -DOPatch.ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oraclegrid/18, -DOPatch.DEBUG=false, -DOPatch.MAKE=false, -DOPatch.RUNNING_DIR=/opt/oracle/18/OPatch, -DOPatch.MW_HOME=, -DOPatch.WL_HOME=, -DOPatch.COMMON_COMPONENTS_HOME=, -DO
Patch.OUI_LOCATION=/opt/oraclegrid/18/oui, -DOPatch.FMW_COMPONENT_HOME=, -DOPatch.OPATCH_CLASSPATH=, -DOPatch.WEBLOGIC_CLASSPATH=, -DOPatch.SKIP_OUI_VERSION_CHECK=, -DOPatch.NEXTGEN_HOME_CHECK=false, -DOPatc
h.PARALLEL_ON_FMW_OH=]
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:14 PM] [INFO]    Heap in use : 24 MB
                                    Total memory: 307 MB
                                    Free memory : 282 MB
                                    Max memory  : 1365 MB
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:14 PM] [INFO]    Oracle Home       : /opt/oraclegrid/18
                                    Central Inventory : /opt/oraInventory
                                       from           : /opt/oraclegrid/18/oraInst.loc
                                    OPatch version    : 12.2.0.1.21
                                    OUI version       : 12.2.0.4.0
                                    OUI location      : /opt/oraclegrid/18/oui
                                    Log file location : /opt/oraclegrid/18/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch2020-09-13_14-47-13PM_1.log
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:14 PM] [INFO]    Patch history file: /opt/oraclegrid/18/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch_history.txt
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:16 PM] [INFO]    [OPSR-TIME] Loading raw inventory
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:16 PM] [INFO]    [OPSR-MEMORY] Loaded all components from inventory. Heap memory in use: 54 (MB)
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:16 PM] [INFO]    [OPSR-MEMORY] Loaded all one offs from inventory. Heap memory in use: 54 (MB)
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:16 PM] [INFO]    [OPSR-TIME] Raw inventory loaded successfully
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:16 PM] [INFO]    Invoking utility "cleanup"
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:16 PM] [INFO]    [OPSR-TIME] Cleaning up backup
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:16 PM] [INFO]    OPatch will clean up 'restore.sh,make.txt' files and 'scratch,backup' directories.
                                    You will be still able to rollback patches after this cleanup.
                                    Do you want to proceed? [y|n]
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:16 PM] [INFO]    Start to wait for user-input at Sun Sep 13 14:47:16 CEST 2020
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Finish waiting for user-input at Sun Sep 13 14:47:19 CEST 2020
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    User Responded with: Y
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :
[Sep 13, 2020 2:47:19 PM] [INFO]    Cannot delete as either pathToBeDeleted is empty or it does not contain .patch_storage :

Is this a bug? Or am i doing something wrong? Is this command not supported anymore in latest versions of opatch? Thank you guys

Answer 1

opatch util cleanup was never supposed to delete everything under .patch_storage. It even displays that it cleans up only 'restore.sh,make.txt' files and 'scratch,backup' directories.

Typically, opatch util cleanup will not release a significant amount of space. The files under .patch_storage are needed for rolling back patches.