Perl DBD::Oracle Module installation

Question

Could someone guide me how to install the Perl DBD::Oracle module?

Here is what I have done so far:

• Platform: RHEL 5.8 64 bit
• Installed Perl DBI package
• Installed Oracle Instant client for Linux 64 bit (basi + sdk + sqlplus component for the instant client
• Have set the correct $ORACLE_HOME and $LD_LIBRARY_PATH

• Then when I do perl Makefile.pl it fails with the following error:

  I'm having trouble finding your Oracle version number... trying harder
  
  WARNING: I could not determine Oracle client version so I'll just
  default to version 8.0.0.0. Some features of DBD::Oracle may not work.
  Oracle version based logic in Makefile.PL may produce erroneous results.
  You can use "perl Makefile.PL -V X.Y.Z" to specify a your client version.
  
  Oracle version 8.0.0.0 (8.0)
  DBD::Oracle no longer supports Oracle client versions before 9.2
   Try a version before 1.25 for 9 and 1.18 for 8! at Makefile.PL line 271.
  

• The instant client version: 11.1.0

• The DBD::Oracle version is 1.44

If you have installed successfully with the Oracle instant client, then could you please let me know what am I missing?

Is it possible to install DBD::Oracle without using the Oracle instant client?

Answer 1

• Install if missing ExtUtils-MakeMaker module (sudo yum install perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker)
• Install Perl DBI module ($ yum install perl-DBI)

• Manually install below three RPMs for Oracle instant client (from Instant Client Downloads for Linux x86-64. The example is for v11.2.0.3.0-1: adapt the commands below to the actual version.)

  oracle-instantclient11.2-basic-11.2.0.3.0-1
  oracle-instantclient11.2-devel-11.2.0.3.0-1
  oracle-instantclient11.2-sqlplus-11.2.0.3.0-1
  

I am using 64 bit Linux box, so select your RPM filenames accordingly. Something like sudo yum -y install oracle-instantclient*rpm should do)

• set below variables:

  export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64/lib
  export ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64
  

  MacOS users will need:

  DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64/
  

  Also add ORACLE_HOME to your PATH variable.

• download DBD::Oracle from CPAN

• untar the module and run below commands in given sequence:

  perl Makefile.PL
  make
  sudo make install
  

In case you get complaints about missing gcc you can (temporarily) install it and then remove it.

DONE !!!

Issues I had faced were due to the wrong LD_LIBRARY_PATH. I had set it to /usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64 whereas the correct value is /usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64/lib.

Certainly, this was a great learning for a newbie like me.

Answer 2

Here's what I did on CentOS 7.2 using yum packages and CPAN. This assumes you're using Oracle version 12.1 but I would imagine most versions will work this way.

Install Oracle Instant Client

yum install oracle-instantclient12.1-basic-12.1.0.2.0-1 oracle-instantclient12.1-devel-12.1.0.2.0-1 oracle-instantclient12.1-sqlplus-12.1.0.2.0-1

Copy demo make files

The install expects the *.mk file to be in /usr/share/oracle/12.1/client64 but the yum package install puts them in /usr/share/oracle/12.1/client64/demo.

sudo cp /usr/share/oracle/12.1/client64/demo/* /usr/share/oracle/12.1/client64

Modify .bashrc

Add the following lines to your ~/.bashrc

export ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64/lib
export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME:$PATH

Now source the file

source ~/.bashrc

Update CPAN and DBI

Update CPAN and DBI to the latest

cpan> install CPAN
cpan> reload cpan
cpan> install DBI

Install DBD::Oracle

cpan> install DBD::Oracle

Answer 3

you can also read my article How to install DBD::Oracle which contains all the steps required to install DBD::Oracle CPAN module, which is not a straightforward installation. The purpose is to reduce headache and turn it into a repeatable process.

Answer 4

A little addition to slayedbylucifer answer. I had the same problem like mentioned in the question. I've done all the steps described by slayedbylucifer. But still I got the problem like mentioned here:

/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-suse-linux/4.3/../../../../x86_64-suse-linux/bin/ld: skipping incompatible /opt/oracle/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/client_1/lib//libclntsh.so when searching for -lclntsh
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-suse-linux/4.3/../../../../x86_64-suse-linux/bin/ld: cannot find -lclntsh

So I created the following symbolic link:

ln -s /opt/oracle/app/oracle/product/<YOUR_ORACLE_VERSION>/client_1/lib/libclntsh.so $ORACLE_HOME/libclntsh.so*

After that step the error from above (cannot find -lclntsh) was fixed. The execution of the make command was without any errors.

The only problem I still have is that I don't understand why this symbolic link is necessary.