Issue building cx_Oracle - libclntsh.so.11.1 => not found

Question

I'm trying to build cx_Oracle for a Python 2.7.2 and Oracle 11g installation but the built cx_Oracle.so cannot find libclntsh.so.11.1 so importing cx_Oracle in Python fails.

/mypath/cx_Oracle-5.1.1/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7-11g]$ ldd cx_Oracle.so
    libclntsh.so.11.1 => not found
    libpthread.so.0 => /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x00002ae9be290000)
    libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00002ae9be4ab000)
    /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x000000389b600000)

I have libclntsh.so.11.1 in my Oracle client installation directory:

/apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/lib]$ ls -l libclntsh.so*
libclntsh.so -> /apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/lib/libclntsh.so.11.1
libclntsh.so.11.1

And the cx_Oracle setup.py is picking this lib dir up:

/mypath/cx_Oracle-5.1.1]$ python2.7 setup.py build
/apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/
running build
running build_ext
building 'cx_Oracle' extension
gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/rdbms/demo -I/apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/rdbms/public -I/apps/bweb/python-2.7.2/include/python2.7 -c cx_Oracle.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7-11g/cx_Oracle.o -DBUILD_VERSION=5.1.1
In file included from /apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/rdbms/public/oci.h:3024,
                 from cx_Oracle.c:10:
/apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/rdbms/public/ociap.h:10788: warning: function declaration isn't a prototype
/apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/rdbms/public/ociap.h:10794: warning: function declaration isn't a prototype
gcc -pthread -shared build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7-11g/cx_Oracle.o -L/apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/lib -lclntsh -o build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7-11g/cx_Oracle.so

Is something obviously wrong with this setup?

Thanks

UPDATE

My LD_LIBRARY_PATH contains the lib directory above with libclntsh.so.11.1

$ echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
/apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/lib

This doesn't seem to make any difference. I rebuild the cx_Oracle.so file and it still shows libclntsh.so.11.1 => not found when I run $ ldd cx_Oracle.so.

Python failing to load the built module:

Python 2.7.2 (default, Jan 19 2012, 14:38:32)
[GCC 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-11)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import cx_Oracle
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: libclntsh.so.11.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

SOLVED

The issue was related to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. Due to restrictions on the setup I'm working with (corp env) I had to build cx_Oracle as another user (system account). i.e. I was running this:

$ sudo -u username python27 setup.py build

So even though LD_LIBRARY_PATH was set correctly for me, my version wasn't used when command was executed as a different user. I was able to build successfully by moving the source code to a location where I had permissions and running the build as my user.

Answer 1

Add /apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/lib/ to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable execute the command below in the terminal before running python or add it into your .bashrc

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/lib/

Answer 2

Yes. You forgot to tell your loader cache tool that it needs to look in that directory for libraries. Add that directory to /etc/ld.so.conf or a similar file and run ldconfig.

Answer 3

Many oracle products install oraenv. It will set, among other environment variables, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, so consider running . oraenv instead of setting your environment manually.

Answer 4

Set the LD_RUN_PATH. ( LD_RUN_PATH is used by the linker to specify where to look for libraries only at run time.)

Now build cx_Oracle.

/mypath/cx_Oracle-5.1.1]$ export LD_RUN_PATH="/apps/oracle/client/11.2.0.1/home1/lib"
/mypath/cx_Oracle-5.1.1]$ python2.7 setup.py build

This will not require the setting of LD_LIBRARY_PATH while importing cx_Oracle.