Installing Oracle Instant Client on Mac OS X

Getting right down to business…

1. Download the Instant Client Packages (4 files)
2. Unzip the files into instantclient10_1

unzip instantclient-basic-macosx-10.1.0.3.zip
unzip instantclient-sqlplus-macosx-10.1.0.3.zip
unzip instantclient-sdk-macosx-10.1.0.3.zip
unzip instantclient-jdbc-macosx-10.1.0.3.zip

Create two symbolic links for the files that have the version appended. This is so the Ruby OCI8 driver can find what it’s looking for.

cd instantclient10_1
ln -s libclntsh.dylib.10.1 libclntsh.dylib
ln -s libocci.dylib.10.1 libocci.dylib
cd ..

Create directory /usr/local/oracle and then copy instantclient10_1 into it

sudo mkdir /usr/local/oracle
sudo mv instantclient10_1 /usr/local/oracle/instantclient10_1

Open the system /etc/profile

sudo pico /etc/profile

Add these lines to /etc/profile

DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/oracle/instantclient10_1"
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
SQLPATH="/usr/local/oracle/instantclient10_1"
export SQLPATH

Add /usr/local/oracle/instantclient10_1 to your PATH while you have /etc/profile open. Then save it.

Reload your profile

source /etc/profile

Test it out with the sqlplus command line app.

sqlplus [username][/password]@//[hostname][:port][/database]

If you can connect with that, then you’re good to go.