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I'm running macOS Catalina 10.15.7 and I need to install Oracle Instant Client to run run a Perl script that connects to a DB.

1. Installing Oracle Instant Client

I downloaded the packages I needed:

  • Basic Light Package (DMG)
  • SDK Package (DMG)
  • ODBC Package (DMG)

From Instant Client 19.8 and followed the installation instructions without any issues (just copying and pasting)

The files are extracted in /Users/username/Downloads/instantclient_19_8

2. Setting ORACLE_HOME

Next, I did set ORACLE_HOME to /Users/username/Downloads/instantclient_19_8

export ORACLE_HOME=/Users/username/Downloads/instantclient_19_8

3. Installing DBD::Oracle

When I tried to install DBD::Oracle I got the following error:

$ cpanm DBD::Oracle
--> Working on DBD::Oracle
Fetching http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/M/MJ/MJEVANS/DBD-Oracle-1.80.tar.gz ... OK
Configuring DBD-Oracle-1.80 ... N/A
! Configure failed for DBD-Oracle-1.80. See /Users/username/.cpanm/work/1608142485.48272/build.log for details.

The log file's content:

$ cat /Users/username/.cpanm/work/1608142485.48272/build.log
cpanm (App::cpanminus) 1.7044 on perl 5.032000 built for darwin-thread-multi-2level
Work directory is /Users/username/.cpanm/work/1608142485.48272
You have make /usr/bin/make
You have LWP 6.47
You have /usr/bin/tar: bsdtar 3.3.2 - libarchive 3.3.2 zlib/1.2.11 liblzma/5.0.5 bz2lib/1.0.6
You have /usr/bin/unzip
Searching DBD::Oracle () on cpanmetadb ...
--> Working on DBD::Oracle
Fetching http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/M/MJ/MJEVANS/DBD-Oracle-1.80.tar.gz
-> OK
Unpacking DBD-Oracle-1.80.tar.gz
Entering DBD-Oracle-1.80
Checking configure dependencies from META.json
Checking if you have Config 0 ... Yes (5.032000)
Checking if you have Encode 0 ... Yes (3.06)
Checking if you have Math::BigInt 0 ... Yes (1.999818)
Checking if you have Devel::Peek 0 ... Yes (1.28)
Checking if you have Test::More 0 ... Yes (1.302177)
Checking if you have ExtUtils::MakeMaker 6.58 ... Yes (7.44)
Checking if you have Data::Dumper 0 ... Yes (2.174)
Checking if you have DBI 1.623 ... Yes (1.643)
Checking if you have Test::NoWarnings 0 ... Yes (1.04)
Configuring DBD-Oracle-1.80
Running Makefile.PL
Using DBI 1.643 (for perl 5.032000 on darwin-thread-multi-2level) installed in /usr/local/Cellar/perl/5.32.0/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.32.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level/auto/DBI/
Configuring DBD::Oracle for perl 5.032000 on darwin (darwin-thread-multi-2level)

If you encounter any problem, a collection of troubleshooting
guides are available under lib/DBD/Oracle/Troubleshooting.
'DBD::Oracle::Troubleshooting' is the general troubleshooting
guide, while platform-specific troubleshooting hints
live in their labelled sub-document (e.g., Win32
hints are gathered in 'lib/DBD/Oracle/Troubleshooting/Win32.pod').

Trying to find an ORACLE_HOME
Your DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH env var is set to ''

      The ORACLE_HOME environment variable is not set and I couldn't guess it.
      It must be set to hold the path to an Oracle installation directory
      on this machine (or a machine with a compatible architecture).
      See the appropriate troubleshooting guide for your OS for more information.
      ABORTED!

-> N/A
-> FAIL Configure failed for DBD-Oracle-1.80. See /Users/username/.cpanm/work/1608142485.48272/build.log for details.

I've read here that ORACLE_HOME should be set to the value of the directory that contains the /bin directory but I can't find any /bin.

Christopher Jones
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Bilal
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    If anyone voted for the question to be closed, please can you write a comment explaining the reason? (What do you mean by `This question doesn’t meet a Stack Overflow guideline`?) – Bilal Dec 16 '20 at 18:46

2 Answers2

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macOS is always changing, but on Mojave I installed Instant Client from the DMGs and then did:

brew install perl
ln -s $HOME/Downloads/instantclient_19_8 $HOME/instantclient
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/instantclient
cpan -i -T DBI
cpan -i -T DBD::Oracle

In general, never set ORACLE_HOME for Instant Client. (It can cause the wrong config files to be read). ORACLE_HOME is used for a 'full' database or full client installation, not for Instant Client. However some installers still reference the variable to find build files, so you will need it - at least at build time. DBD::Oracle will internally search for Instant Client and use $HOME/instantclient if $ORACLE_HOME isn't set.

macOS has gradually removed the usefulness of DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH, since it isn't propagated to subshells. This means it can't reliably be used. On Mojave I found I could alternatively copy the Instant Client libraries to $HOME/lib/ and didn't need to set DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Side note: if you're using DBD::Oracle you don't need the Instant Client ODBC package.

Christopher Jones
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0

Christopher Jones answer was not enough for me (macOS Monterey 12.2, Apple M1 Pro). The installation stopped with

./Oracle.h:37:10: fatal error: 'oci.h' file not found

To fix this, installation of Oracle SDK Package was required https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/instant-client/macos-intel-x86-downloads.html#ic_osx_inst

Second comment:

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/instantclient

does not work (see Bash variable of name starting with 'DYLD' is not loaded into environment: bug or feature? )

==================================================

But this is not the end-of-the-problem. The installed DBD::Oracle can not be used. It fails:

Can't load '/Users/myname/.perlbrew/libs/perl-5.34.1@eien6/lib/perl5/darwin-2level/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.bundle'
for module DBD::Oracle: dlopen(/Users/myname/.perlbrew/libs/perl-5.34.1@eien6/lib/perl5/darwin-2level/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.bundle, 0x0001):
symbol not found in flat namespace '_OCIAttrGet' at 
/Users/myname/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.34.1/lib/5.34.1/darwin-2level/DynaLoader.pm line 197.

Is this related to the MacOS SIP mechanism ? How to use DBD::Oracle ?

Stanislaw Romanski
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  • Please do not ask questions in answer to other question. It is better to create separate question with detailed description of your issue and with link to other questions, if they are somehow connected to your issue. – eNca Apr 25 '22 at 11:01
  • This does not really answer the question. If you have a different question, you can ask it by clicking [Ask Question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask). To get notified when this question gets new answers, you can [follow this question](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/345661). Once you have enough [reputation](https://stackoverflow.com/help/whats-reputation), you can also [add a bounty](https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges/set-bounties) to draw more attention to this question. - [From Review](/review/late-answers/31589459) – eNca Apr 25 '22 at 11:02