Environment variable woes connecting to Oracle

[seawarrior]

Given this test program that connects to Oracle:

#!/usr/bin/perl -I/home/install/perl
$ENV{'ORACLE_HOME'}="/home/root/home/xyzco/oracle/oracle/product/12.1.
+0/dbHome_1";
$ENV{'LD_LIBRARY_PATH'}="/home/root/home/xyzco/oracle/oracle/product/1
+2.1.0/dbHome_1/lib:/lib:/usr/lib";
use DBI;
print $ENV{'LD_LIBRARY_PATH'};

$dbh = DBI->connect( "dbi:Oracle:host=127.0.0.1;sid=V1011679;port=1521
+", isx, devpassXD0kei4Eo3W3n9n, { AutoCommit => 1} );

The output is as follows; i.e. it fails to connect complaining that it can't load /home/install/perl/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.so.

site1:/home/install/perl/auto/DBD/Oracle # perl test.pl
AJS Dynaloader -/home/install/perl/auto/DBI/DBI.so-
AJS Dynaloader
AJS Dynaloader -/home/install/perl/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.so-
/home/root/home/xyzco/oracle/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbHome_1/lib:/lib:/
+usr/libAJS Dynaloader /home/root/home/xyzco/oracle/oracle/product/12.
+1.0/dbHome_1/lib:/lib:/usr/lib
install_driver(Oracle) failed: Can't load '/home/install/perl/auto/DBD
+/Oracle/Oracle.so' for module DBD::Oracle: libclntsh.so.11.1: cannot 
+open shared object file: No such file or directory at /usr/lib/perl5/
+5.10.0/x86_64-linux-thread-multi/DynaLoader.pm line 205.
 at (eval 3) line 3
Compilation failed in require at (eval 3) line 3.
Perhaps a required shared library or dll isn't installed where expecte
+d
 at test.pl line 7

HOWEVER, if I explicitly define the environment variable in the shell:

site1:/home/install/perl/auto/DBD/Oracle # declare -x LD_LIBRARY_PATH=
+"/home/root/home/xyzco/oracle/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbHome_1/lib:/lib
+:/usr/lib"

and then run the program:

site1:/home/install/perl/auto/DBD/Oracle # perl test.pl
AJS Dynaloader -/home/install/perl/auto/DBI/DBI.so-
AJS Dynaloader /home/root/home/xyzco/oracle/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbHo
+me_1/lib:/lib:/usr/lib
AJS Dynaloader -/home/install/perl/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.so-
/home/root/home/xyzco/oracle/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbHome_1/lib:/lib:/
+usr/libAJS Dynaloader /home/root/home/xyzco/oracle/oracle/product/12.
+1.0/dbHome_1/lib:/lib:/usr/lib

...then it is successful. Why doesn't the program work when I define the environment variable from inside the program but not in the shell? OS is SLES11. Thanks for your help!

[stevieb]

LD_LIBRARY_PATH *must* be set before perl is loaded. You can either set it at the command line prior to running your script, or wrap your perl script with a shell script where you can set the env var, then kick off the perl script.

[afoken]

LD_LIBRARY_PATH *must* be set before perl is loaded.

Generally, yes, but for loading the propritary DLLs required by DBD::Oracle, no. It is sufficient to set up the environment variables before DBD::Oracle is loaded.

This should also work:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use lib '/home/install/perl'; 

BEGIN {
    # Setup Environment for Oracle - has to happen *before* DBD::Oracl
+e is loaded,
    # and because DBI loads DBD::Oracle during its startup, this has t
+o happen
    # before the first "use DBI".
    $ENV{'ORACLE_HOME'}="/home/root/home/xyzco/oracle/oracle/product/1
+2.1.0/dbHome_1";
    $ENV{'LD_LIBRARY_PATH'}="/home/root/home/xyzco/oracle/oracle/produ
+ct/12.1.0/dbHome_1/lib:/lib:/usr/lib";
}

use DBI;

print $ENV{'LD_LIBRARY_PATH'};

$dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:Oracle:host=127.0.0.1;sid=V1011679;port=1521"
+, "user", "password", { AutoCommit => 1});

Alexander

[stevieb]

That's great! Thanks for digging deeper on the issue.

[seawarrior]

Thank you sir.