Configuring PHP with OCI8

Review the previous Requirements section before configuring OCI8.

Before starting the web server, OCI8 typically requires several Oracle environment variables (see below) to locate libraries, point to configuration files, and set some basic properties such as the character set used by Oracle libraries. The variables must be set before any PHP process starts.

The PHP binary must link with the same, or more recent, major version of Oracle libraries as it was configured with. For example, if you build OCI8 with Oracle 19 libraries, then PHP should also be deployed and run with Oracle 19 libraries. PHP applications can connect to other versions of Oracle Database, since Oracle has client-server cross-version compatibility.

Installing OCI8 from PECL Using the pecl Command

The OCI8 extension can be added to an existing PHP installation by using the » PECL repository.

• If you are behind a firewall, set PEAR's proxy, for example:

  pear config-set http_proxy http://my-proxy.example.com:80/
  

• Run

  pecl install oci8
  

  For PHP 7, use pecl install oci8-2.2.0

• When prompted, enter either the value of $ORACLE_HOME, or instantclient,/path/to/instant/client/lib.

  Note: Do not enter variable names like $ORACLE_HOME or $HOME because pecl will not expand them. Instead, enter an expanded path, for example /opt/oracle/product/19c/dbhome_1 or instantclient,/Users/myname/Downloads/instantclient_19_8

• If you get an error oci8_dtrace_gen.h: No such file or directory, it means PHP was built with DTrace Dynamic Tracing enabled. Install using:

  $ export PHP_DTRACE=yes
  $ pecl install oci8
  

• Edit your php.ini file and add the line:

  extension=oci8.so
  

  Make sure the php.ini directive extension_dir is set to the directory that oci8.so was installed in.

Installing OCI8 from PECL Using phpize

To install OCI8 on an existing PHP installation when the pecl command is not available, manually download the » PECL OCI8 package, e.g. oci8-3.0.0.tgz.

• Extract the package:

  tar -zxf oci8-3.0.0.tgz
  cd oci8-3.0.0
  

• Prepare the package:

  phpize
  

• Configure the package, either using $ORACLE_HOME or Instant Client

  ./configure -with-oci8=shared,$ORACLE_HOME
  

  or

  ./configure -with-oci8=shared,instantclient,/path/to/instant/client/lib
  

• Install the package:

  make install
  

• If you get an error oci8_dtrace_gen.h: No such file or directory, it means PHP was built with DTrace Dynamic Tracing enabled. Re-run the configure and make commands after setting this environment variable:

  $ export PHP_DTRACE=yes
  

• Edit your php.ini file and add the line:

  extension=oci8.so
  

  Make sure the php.ini directive extension_dir is set to the directory that oci8.so was installed in.

Installing OCI8 as a Shared Extension when Building PHP

If you are building PHP from source code, the configuration shared option can be used to build OCI8 as a shared library that can be dynamically loaded into PHP. Building a shared extension allows OCI8 to be upgraded easily without impacting the rest of PHP.

Configure OCI8 using one of the following configure options.

• If using the free » Oracle Instant Client libraries, then do:

  ./configure --with-oci8=shared,instantclient,/path/to/instant/client/lib
  

  If Instant Client 12.2 (or earlier) is installed from ZIP files, make sure to create the library symbolic link first, for example ln -s libclntsh.so.12.1 libclntsh.so.

  If using an RPM-based installation of Oracle Instant Client, the configure line will look like this:

  ./configure --with-oci8=shared,instantclient,/usr/lib/oracle/<version>/client/lib
  

  For example, --with-oci8=shared,instantclient,/usr/lib/oracle/19.9/client/lib

• If using an Oracle database or full Oracle Client installation then do:

  ./configure --with-oci8=shared,$ORACLE_HOME
  

  Make sure the web server user (nobody, www) has access to the libraries, initialization files and tnsnames.ora (if used) under the $ORACLE_HOME directory. With Oracle 10gR2, you may need to run the $ORACLE_HOME/install/changePerm.sh utility to give directory access.

After configuration, follow the usual PHP building procedure, e.g. make install. The OCI8 shared extension oci8.so library will be created. It may need to be manually moved to the PHP extension directory, specified by the extension_dir option in your php.ini file.

To complete installation of OCI8, edit php.ini and add the line:

extension=oci8.so

Installing OCI8 as a Statically Compiled Extension when Building PHP

If you are building PHP from source code, you can configure PHP to include OCI8 as a static extension using one of the following configure options.

• If using Oracle Instant Client, then do:

  ./configure --with-oci8=instantclient,/path/to/instant/client/lib
  

• If using an Oracle database or full Oracle Client installation then do:

  ./configure --with-oci8=$ORACLE_HOME
  

After configuration, follow the usual PHP building procedure, e.g. make install. After successful compilation, you do not need to add oci8.so to php.ini. No additional build steps are required.

Installing OCI8 on Windows

The OCI8 extension can be added to an existing PHP installation by using the DLLs from » PECL repository or the libraries in your PHP installation's ext directory.

With Oracle 12c (or later) libraries, uncomment one of the php.ini lines extension=php_oci8_12c.dll or extension=php_oci8_11g.dll or extension=php_oci8.dll. Only one of these DLLs may be enabled at a time. DLLs with higher versions may contain more functionality. Not all DLLs may be available for all versions of PHP. Make sure extension_dir is set to the directory containing the PHP extension DLLs.

If using Instant Client, set the system PATH environment variable to the Oracle library directory.

Setting the Oracle Environment

Before using this extension, make sure that the Oracle environment variables are properly set for the web daemon user. If your web server is automatically started at boot time then make sure that the boot-time environment is also configured correctly.

Note:

Do not set Oracle environment variables using putenv in a PHP script because Oracle libraries may be loaded and initialized before your script runs. Variables set with putenv may then cause conflicts, crashes, or unpredictable behavior. Some functions may work but others might give subtle errors. The variables should be set up before the web server is started.

On Red Hat Linux and variants, export variables at the end of /etc/sysconfig/httpd. Other systems with Apache 2 may use an envvars script in the Apache bin directory. A third option, the Apache SetEnv directive in httpd.conf, may work in some systems but is known to be insufficient in others.

To check that environment variables are set correctly, use phpinfo and check the Environment (not the Apache Environment) section contains the expected variables.

The variables that might be needed are included in the following table. Refer to the Oracle documentation for more information on all the available variables.

Troubleshooting

The most common problem with installing OCI8 is not having the Oracle environment correctly set. This typically appears as a problem using oci_connect or oci_pconnect. The error may be a PHP error such as Call to undefined function oci_connect(), an Oracle error such as ORA-12705, or even an Apache crash. Check the Apache log files for startup errors and see the sections above to resolve this problem.

While network errors like ORA-12154 or ORA-12514 indicate an Oracle network naming or configuration issue, the root cause may be because the PHP environment is incorrectly set up and Oracle libraries are unable to locate the tnsnames.ora configuration file.

On Windows, having multiple versions of Oracle on the one machine can easily cause library clashes unless care is taken to make sure PHP only uses the correct version of Oracle.

A utility to examine what libraries are being looked for and loaded can help resolve missing or clashing library issues, particularly on Windows.

Note: If the web server doesn't start or crashes at startup

Check that Apache is linked with the pthread library:

# ldd /www/apache/bin/httpd
  libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x4001c000)
  libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x4002f000)
  libcrypt.so.1 => /lib/libcrypt.so.1 (0x4004c000)
  libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x4007a000)
  libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x4007e000)
  /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

If the libpthread is not listed, then reinstall Apache:

# cd /usr/src/apache_1.3.xx
# make clean
# LIBS=-lpthread ./config.status
# make
# make install

Please note that on some systems like UnixWare, it is libthread instead of libpthread. PHP and Apache have to be configured with EXTRA_LIBS=-lthread.