While automating the refresh of the test databases on Oracle 12c Multitenant environment with ACFS and PDB snapshot copy, I encountered the following BUG:

The column SNAPSHOT_PARENT_CON_ID of the view V$PDBS shows 0 (zero) in case of PDBs created as Snapshot Copy.

This bug prevents to identify the parent-child relationship between a PDB and its own Snapshots Copies.

The test case below explains the problem:

SQL> CREATE PLUGGABLE DATABASE LARTE3SEFU from LARTE3 SNAPSHOT COPY; 
 
 Pluggable database created. 
 
 SQL> select CON_ID, NAME, OPEN_MODE, SNAPSHOT_PARENT_CON_ID from v$pdbs where NAME in ('LARTE3SEFU','LARTE3'); 
 
 CON_ID      NAME          OPEN_MODE  SNAPSHOT_PARENT_CON_ID 
 ---------- -------------- ---------- ---------------------- 
 5          LARTE3         READ ONLY  0 
 16         LARTE3SEFU     MOUNTED    0  <-- This should be 5
 
 2 rows selected. 

A Service Request to Oracle has been opened, I’ll update this post once I have the official answer.

Update from the Service Request: BUG Fixed on version 12.2