Oracle FAQ Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid
HOME | ASK QUESTION | ADD INFO | SEARCH | E-MAIL US
 

Home -> Community -> Usenet -> c.d.o.misc -> Re: OCI libraries for Linux

Re: OCI libraries for Linux

From: <twod_at_not.valid>
Date: 1997/05/26
Message-ID: <5mba73$sb$1@vnetnews.value.net>

Mr Bjorn Borud (borud_at_itea.unit.no) wrote:
: this is becoming more and more of a farse. at least for Sybase you
: can get the client libraries separately and for free. at least for
: Linux -- I do not know if the client libraries are available
: separately for the other platforms.

It may be a farce, but what you are trying to do is use a not exactly straight-forward, so you have to take the rough with the smooth.

Here's an example : I got RDBMS V7.2.3 running under Slackware 96 last year using some PERL script to emulate the SCO tools required to install. I'm currently trying to help someone who has the SCO tools to install and they have hit problems in the iBCS area (ie 'unsupported call setrlimit'). From some of my previous postings to this NG it could therefore be assumed that the Oracle RDBMS could be run under Linux, but things change and what used to work no longer does in this un-supported world of 'suck it and see'.

: price. (buy a "single seat" server license for about $200,- and you
: have the libraries). of course, you can run them on Linux as well as
: other operating systems.

For $200 you can also get a commercial license for 'mSQL'. Amongst the many databases I have installed, I use a beta version of mSQL v2.0 with the DB[ID] modules of PERL5. It performs quite well, actually very well for smallish amounts of data - probably better than Oracle. It may be worth a peek - www.Hughes.com.au - but I don't think that it's a scaleable as Oracle or other full-monty commercial databases. It's available as 'C' source code, so is highly portbale.

: | Knowing the iBCS emulation under Linux, perhaps see if the SCO
: | Workgroup Server 90 day trial software is shipped with them.
 

: this sounds sort of "half way legal" and I am not sure I wish to risk
: doing something that might be illegal. thanks for the tip though.

Depends on the licensing agreement that you have with Oracle. I work for a company with a license for all of Oracle's products, we can use them as we see fit, but if we tried to get support for the SCO executables on Linux ...

: | Personally, I would not attempt to do any OCI/Pro* coding on anything
: | other than a native port.
 

: given the uncleanliness, messyness and sketchy "feel" of Oracle I
: certainly agree with you. I already spend a great deal of time
: chasing obscure bugs and dealing with faulty error messages (like for
: instance: in one case I found that OCI complaining about not being
: able to allocate memory really meant that it couldn't read its charset
: conversion tables because of incorrect file permissions. great).

I have done more Pro*C/C++ coding than straight OCI work and haven't had any major problems. I have supported a couple of OCI coders and they haven't hit any mis-leading messages. Maybe the multi-lingual aspects of the product are a little, err, flakey :)

: who do you call? I've been on the phone with Oracle a few times the
: last year or so, but I generally find that more time is spent
: exchanging billing information than actually helping me.
: I wouldn't even know where to start if I wanted to talk to someone who
: can make a difference as to the availability of programming tools.

Primarily, the 1-800 number. Once you get past the the first line support, you sometimes talk to the duty managers or developers - use these chances to chew the fat and ask open-ended questions.

: this is very frustrating to me since I initially had a very positive
: attitude about using Oracle.

Errm, so you assumed their was a linux port, or linux was your OS of choice ?

: | Going elsewhere is an option and will hit Oracle where it hurts, in the
: | year-end $$ totals.
 

: really, because I am under the impression that there are more
: well-trained DBAs using DB2 and Oracle then there are DBAs experienced
: in using Sybase, Adabas or even Solid.

Ever tried to find a well-trained Oracle DBA ?

We get people at interviews claiming 3 years DBA experience who cannot explain what a rowid is ! [I'd like to say that this is a joke, but sadly it is not]

: I'm on the doorstep of choosing database technology for 3 or 4 future
: projects right now. projects where the database will be very
: important because it will be the backbone of the system. I am willing
: to trade functionality for ease of use, stability and portability.
 

: I really don't know if Oracle is what I should be using. since at
: least two of the projects involve several thousand client machines
: of various kinds this suggests I won't be using Oracle -- at least not
: directly without some sane middleware.

Take a deep breath.

Take a step back.

Take another step back.

Have a think what you are trying to achieve.

OK, let that breath out.

I would suggest that you and your system architects get a clean whiteboard and a few coloured pens and have a think about what you are trying to achieve.

Phrases such as 'the backbone of the system' and ' portability', do not spring to mind when you mention 'Linux' and 'Oracle' in the same sentence. Sure Linux is stable and System V'ish; sure, Oracle is stable and portable, but the match was not made in heaven.

From what I can gather from your previous posts, you will have an Oracle RDBMS sitting somewhere on a server that will be accessed from many remote sites/operating systems using OCI and, presumably, SQL*Net ?

I'm prepared to go off-line with this, as it could get tedious for others. but how about using Oraperl ? It's as portable as PERL; in my experience offers the same performance as 'averagely written' Pro*C/OCI (ie no host arrays, although that is being worked on, albeit it slowly); allows for great portability - platform and database; allows development work with minimal effort (ie compile/port the DBD modules for a given databse/platform once); is freely available; is supported in the usenet tradtion of mailing lists that get right to the developers.

When starting up a project, you should ascertain what are the critical components that have to provide the best performance and/or the most flexibility. It is these critical components (ie the database engine) rather then the generic components (ie OS's) that should form the key part of your solution. Naturally, the generic components should match/enhance the critical components, but you have to make sure that the critical components are able to give their best performance. I somehow feel, that things are the other way around in your current plan.

As much as I admire Linux/FreeBSD/NetBSD/Coherent/ foo, it is a sad fact of (commercial) life that for certain applications they are, through no fault of their own, not yet read to go into full-monty production in some areas.

IAP

--
In an attempt to reduce junk email I use an invalid 'From' address.
My correct email address can can be determined by replacing 'not.valid' with 
'value.net'
Received on Mon May 26 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT

Original text of this message

HOME | ASK QUESTION | ADD INFO | SEARCH | E-MAIL US