Install Oracle client on Ubuntu

install-oracle-client-ubuntu.md

Reference: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Oracle%20Instant%20Client

Tested on: Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04

1. Decide which version of the Oracle client to install

   • Each version of the client supports certain versions of the database; for example, Oracle client 12.1 supports Oracle database 10.2 - 19c
   • See here for more information: http://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocumentDisplay?id=207303.1

2. Download the Oracle client packages

   • Go here and download the desired RPM package(s): https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/instant-client/downloads.html
   • At a minimum you'll need either the basiclite package (for English error messages and Western language character sets) or the basic package (to support all languages)
   • Get the sqlplus package if you'd like to use the sqlplus command

3. Install prerequisites

   sudo apt install alien libaio1
   

4. Install the Oracle client package(s)

   sudo alien -i oracle-instantclient19.12-basiclite-19.12.0.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm
   

5. Update the system library path to include the oracle libraries

   Note: This doesn't seem to be necessary any more; maybe it's included in the newer versions of the Oracle library package now?

   sudo sh -c 'echo /usr/lib/oracle/19.12/client64/lib/ > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/oracle.conf'
   sudo ldconfig
   

Use alien -i --scripts ... and then you won't need to manually update ld.so.conf.d/*