Install sqlplus instant client on debian

I have  often had to install the sqlplus instant client on debian based systems. Below I am sharing how I last went about this on Ubuntu 13.04 but the guide should be solid on other debian based distros.

SQLPLUS install Ubuntu 13.04 64 Bit

First download the package "alien from the ubuntu repos. This will allow you to install rpm packages on debian based systems.

sudo apt-get install alien

Next head on over to the Oracle site and download the instant client packages listed below, you can download then all if you want but these 3 will give you the basics.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/linuxx86-64soft-092277.html

Once that is done, go to your download folder and execute the following:

sudo alien -i oracle-instantclient12.1-basic*.rpm

sudo alien -i oracle-instantclient12.1-sqlplus*.rpm

sudo alien -i oracle-instantclient12.1-devel*.rpm

sudo apt-get install libaio1

sudo touch /etc/ld.so.conf.d/oracle.conf

sudo ldconfig

Now make sure everything is working by trying to establish an sqlplus session by building the TNS entry as below.

Notice that the command for using sqlplus is sqlplus64 as this is a 64bit install.

sqlplus64 username/password@//dbhost:1521/SID

Thats it, you should be done.

But thats never the case is it :)

You will now find that you get the error
sqlplus64: error while loading shared libraries: libsqlplus.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

when you try to run it.

This is due to you having to set the LD_LIBRARY path variable to point at the required lib folder below.

/usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64/lib/libsqlplus.so

To fix this issue add these system variables with the following commands:

touch ~/.bash_profile
echo "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64/lib/" >> ~/.bash_profile
. ~/.bash_profile

Now when you run sqlplus64 you should be good to go.

If you want to create a tnsnames.ora that oracle will use to store TNS entries then create your tnsnames.ora file where you want it and reference it as an environment variable by adding the following to the ~/.profile file with the following commands.

echo "export TNS_ADMIN=~/yourPathToFolderContainingTnsnames.ora" >> ~/.bash_profile
. ~/.bash_profilevel*.rpm

sudo apt-get install libaio1

sudo touch /etc/ld.so.conf.d/oracle.conf

sudo ldconfig
touch ~/.bash_profile
echo "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64/lib/" >> ~/.bash_profile
. ~/.bash_profile