First of all, it just seems like doing anything with Oracle is obnoxiously painful for no good reason. It's the nature of the beast I suppose. cx_oracle is a python module that allows you to connect to an Oracle Database and issue queries, inserts, updates..usual jazz.
Step 1:
sudo apt-get install build-essential unzip python-dev libaio-devStep 2. Click [http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/linuxx86-64soft-092277.html:here] to download the appropriate zip files required for this. You'll need:
- instantclient-basic-linux
- instantclient-sdk-linux
Get the appropriate version for your system.. x86 vs 64 etc. Make sure you don't get version 12, since it's not supported by the cx_Oracle moduel yet.
Unzip the content in the same location, so you'll end up with a folder named: instantclient_11_2 (in my case) which will contain a bunch of .so and jar files.
just for ease of use I'll use $ORACLE_HOME which will basically point to the location where you unzipped your installclient folders.
export ORACLE_HOME=$(pwd)/instantclient_11_2
Step 3. create a symlink to your SO file.
cd $ORACLE_HOME
ln -s libclntsh.so.11.1 libclntsh.so #the version number on your .so file might be different
Step 4. Update your /etc/profile or your ~/.bashrc
export ORACLE_HOME=/location/of/your/files/instantclient_11_2
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ORACLE_HOME
Step 4: Edit /etc/ld.so.conf.d/oracle.conf
This is a new file, simple add the location of your .so files here, then update the ldpath using
sudo ldconfig