TNS-01150: The address of the specified listener name is incorrect

Problem Description
While start Oracle listener it fails with error "TNS-01150: The address of the specified listener name is incorrect" like below.

E:\Arju>lsnrctl start LISTENER12

LSNRCTL for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on 29-MAR-2010 10:38:21

Copyright (c) 1991, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Starting tnslsnr: please wait...

TNSLSNR for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
System parameter file is E:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_2\network\admin\listener.ora
Log messages written to E:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_2\network\log\listener12.log
TNS-01150: The address of the specified listener name is incorrect

Listener failed to start. See the error message(s) above...

Problem Investigation
If you open the logfile "Log messages written to E:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_2\network\log\listener12.log" as suggest in the error message above you will see an entry like,

TNSLSNR for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on 29-MAR-2010 15:51:16

Copyright (c) 1991, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

System parameter file is E:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_2\network\admin\listener.ora
Log messages written to E:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_2\network\log\listener12.log
Trace information written to E:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_2\network\trace\listener12.trc
Trace level is currently 0

Started with pid=4644
TNS-01150: The address of the specified listener name is incorrect

But unfortunately you no longer will see trace file information in the file "E:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_2\network\trace\listener12.trc" as written in listener log file unless you have enable listener tracing.

Cause of the Problem
The problem happened because the address on which the listener attempted to listen contains a syntax error or have indention problem.

Solution of the Problem
My listener entry within listener.ora file was like below which cause TNS-01150 error.

LISTENER12 =
(DESCRIPTION = 
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1)) 
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1524))
)

I changed the indentation as,

LISTENER12 =
 (DESCRIPTION = 
  (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1)) 
  (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1524))
 )

Now starting the listener is working perfect.

E:\Arju>lsnrctl start LISTENER12

LSNRCTL for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on 29-MAR-2010 18:48:28

Copyright (c) 1991, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Starting tnslsnr: please wait...

TNSLSNR for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
System parameter file is E:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_2\network\admin\listener.ora
Log messages written to E:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_2\network\log\listener12.log
Listening on: (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(PIPENAME=\\.\pipe\EXTPROC1ipc)))
Listening on: (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=127.0.0.1)(PORT=1524)))

Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=IPC)(KEY=EXTPROC1)))
STATUS of the LISTENER
------------------------
Alias                     LISTENER12
Version                   TNSLSNR for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
Start Date                29-MAR-2010 18:48:29
Uptime                    0 days 0 hr. 0 min. 1 sec
Trace Level               off
Security                  ON: Local OS Authentication
SNMP                      OFF
Listener Parameter File   E:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_2\network\admin\listener.ora
Listener Log File         E:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_2\network\log\listener12.log
Listening Endpoints Summary...
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(PIPENAME=\\.\pipe\EXTPROC1ipc)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=127.0.0.1)(PORT=1524)))
Services Summary...
Service "PLSExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "PLSExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "a" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "a", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
The command completed successfully

Note that, a variant of above problem throws following TNS-01150:, NL-00303: if the indention/syntax is not ok.

E:\Arju>lsnrctl stop LISTENER12

LSNRCTL for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on 29-MAR-2010 18:50:58

Copyright (c) 1991, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

TNS-01150: The address of the specified listener name is incorrect
 NL-00303: syntax error in NV string

So as soon as you hit TNS-01150 look for your Oracle version listener.ora syntax and make sure you have tab starting from second lines in listener entry.

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