How do you version your Oracle database changes?

I am interested to know what methods other people are using to keep track of changes made to the database including table definition changes, new objects, packages changes, etc. Do you use flat files with an external version control system? Triggers? Other software?

At the sites I've worked at, any changes that need to be made to the production instance(s) must be scripted as change scripts that will run in SQL*Plus; in addition, scripts needed to recreate all schema objects from scratch must be kept up-to-date. All these scripts are checked into change control, and are migrated from there.

You can audit DDL changes or use DDL triggers to pick up changes, or even use diff software to compare two instances, but these methods are indiscriminate; often a developer will make and undo a number of changes to a schema (e.g. little test changes, creating dummy tables to test out concepts, etc) before working out what exactly needs to be changed.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#283, answer score: 22