If you plan on writing any python applications/scripts for performing any basic SQL query’s against an oracle database you will need to have the cx_oracle library files installed to your machine (or server) here are some quick instructions on how to install them.
Please be aware i have only tested these instructions under Ubuntu 10.10 (32bit) using the 11.2 oracle instant client, when I have time I will try and install this on one of the x86_64 machines i have access to.
- become root user
sudo su -- install python-setuptools python-dev needed for the easy_install later on.
apt-get install python-setuptools python-dev- install the following from the oracle website http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/oci/instantclient/index.html
- instantclient-basic-linux (32bit or 64bit depending on your system)
- instantclient-sdk-linux (32bit or 64bit depending on your system) I have installed the files to /opt/instantclient_11_2 for ease
- Setup ORACLE_HOME and LD_LIBRARY_PATH e.g.
export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/instantclient_11_2
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ORACLE_HOME- The cx_oracle file needs to find a certain library file libclntsh.so you will find this under /opt/instantclient_11_2/libclntsh.so.X.X (X = version number) please make a symlink as follows
cd $ORACLE_HOME
ln -s libclntsh.so.11.1 libclntsh.so- run the following from the command line as root
easy_install cx_oracle- job done.
Here is a good tutoral on how to use the library files once you have things installed