Can't load '/usr/local/lib64/perl5/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.so' for module DBD::Oracle: libclntsh.so.12.1

Question

When trying to run a perl script that creates a new oracle database from a PHP web page, an error is raised.

• My PHP page is hosted at linux server (centos7)

• Updated the following environment variables:

  export ORACLE_HOME=oracle home path export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH

• The perl tool is executed from PHP code after clicking on a HTML button:

  exec("perl scriptName.pl" )

• The following error is raised:

  install_driver(Oracle) failed: Can't load '/usr/local/lib64/perl5/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.so' for module DBD::Oracle: libclntsh.so.12.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory at /usr/lib64/perl5/DynaLoader.pm line 190. at (eval 17) line 3. Compilation failed in require at (eval 17) line 3. Perhaps a required shared library or dll isn't installed where expected at (eval 10) line 22698.

• Even though running the perl script alone without calling from web php page by executing: "perl script.pl" on the linux server, the code executed and no errors raised.

Answer 1

Actually, the error message contains the important pointer (emphasis mine):

install_driver(Oracle) failed: Can't load '/usr/local/lib64/perl5/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.so' for module DBD::Oracle: libclntsh.so.12.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory at /usr/lib64/perl5/DynaLoader.pm line 190. at (eval 17) line 3. Compilation failed in require at (eval 17) line 3. Perhaps a required shared library or dll isn't installed where expected at (eval 10) line 22698.

This problem arises when Oracle's "instant client" libraries are not available via the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. This set of libraries contains (among others) libclntsh.so (the suffix is version-dependant). Once you have it installed, just make sure the corresponding path is present in LD_LIBRARY_PATH.