PHP and Oracle: Christopher Jones

Oracle Enterprise Linux Yum Server Available

cj — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:44:30 +0000

After a slightly protracted delay waiting for our earnings announcement, Oracle Linux Engineering have just announced Enterprise Linux packages for Release 4, Release 5 and Oracle VM 2 are now freely available on a yum server http://public-yum.oracle.com/. Previously, the whole CD or DVD image had to be downloaded for local use.

PHP 5.2.9 RPMs for RHEL are available

cj — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:04:43 +0000

PHP 5.2.9 RPMs for RHEL 4 & 5, 32 & 64 bit are now up on http://oss.oracle.com/projects/php/. The OCI8 1.3.5 extension is included.

If you followed me on twitter, you would have got this news yesterday :)

web2Project talk: Northern Virginia Linux User Group at Oracle Reston Sat 7th Feb

cj — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 21:18:47 +0000

Late news, but D. Keith Casey Jr just tweeted that he's talking about the web2Project at NoVaLUG 10am Saturday at Oracle's Reston building. Details on the NOVALUG website

Installing Oracle Database 11g on Ubuntu

cj — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:00:00 +0000

Paul Vallee from Pythian emailed me that they have a new installation guide out. The name says it all:
Installing Oracle 11gR1 on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex.

Oracle XE, Ubuntu Hardy

cj — Thu, 1 May 2008 19:24:26 +0000

After upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04 and deciding to reinstall a bunch of software, I had to revisit a quirk in one Oracle XE shell script:

/usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/bin/nls_lang.sh: 114: [[: not found

I get the error when I source /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/bin/oracle_env.sh to set my environment variables.

The well known solution, for the OS variants where this is a problem, is to edit that file and change the tests to use single brackets.

if [ -n "$LC_ALL" ]; then
  locale=$LC_ALL
elif [ -n "$LANG" ]; then
  locale=$LANG
else
  locale=
fi

Other than that, XE is running fine for my needs so far. The XE install notes for Ubuntu are at: http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/linux/install/xe-on-kubuntu.html

BTW, the verdict on Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 is stay with 7.10 for the time being. I'm finding it quirky and not snappy.

PHP RPMs with OCI8 and PDO_OCI Extensions

cj — Mon, 2 Jul 2007 20:17:15 +0000

If you want a complete set of PHP RPMs including the OCI8 and PDO_OCI extensions, go to http://oss.oracle.com/projects/php/ The intent of this "project" is to make a relatively current version of PHP available for testing. The RPMs hosted at the moment are built from PHP 5.2.3.

Upgrade PHP with Oracle Application Server on Linux

cj — Fri, 1 Jun 2007 16:11:11 +0000

Oracle includes PHP with its mid-tier Application Server 10g Release 3 allowing you to use the same web server for PHP and for J2EE applications.

PHP is enabled by default. The Oracle HTTP Server document root is

$ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/htdocs

Files with .php or .phtml extensions in this directory will be executed by PHP. Files with a .phps extension will be displayed as formatted source code.

Version 10.1.3.0 of the Application Server (AS) comes with PHP 4.3.11. The AS 10.1.3.2 patchset adds PHP 5.1.2. If you have a strong need to use a different version of PHP without installing a new web server, you may be able to compile your own PHP release.

Note: Changing the version of PHP in AS is not supported (and hence is not recommended) but is technically possible in some circumstances. For any AS support calls, regardless of whether they are PHP related, Oracle Support will ask you to revert the changes before beginning investigation.

The technical problem faced with building PHP is that the Oracle libraries for AS do not include header files. This can be overcome by linking PHP with Oracle Instant Client but care needs to be taken so that AS itself does not use the Instant Client libraries. Otherwise you will get errors or unpredictable behavior.

These steps are very version and platform specific. They may not be technically feasible in all deployments of AS.

A previous installation of AS 10.1.3 is assumed. To install a new version of PHP:

1. Logon as the oracle user and change to the home directory

cd $HOME

2. Download the Oracle 10.2.0.3 Basic and SDK Instant Client packages from the Instant Client page on the Oracle Technology Network, http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/oci/instantclient/instantclient.html.

3. Extract the ZIP files:

unzip instantclient-basic-linux32-10.2.0.3-20061115.zip

unzip instantclient-sdk-linux32-10.2.0.3-20061115.zip

4. Change to the Instant Client directory and symbolically link libclntsh.so.10.1:

cd instantclient_10_2

ln -s libclntsh.so.10.1 libclntsh.so

The Instant Client RPMs could also be used, in which case this last step is unnecessary.

Be wary of having Instant Client in /etc/ld.so.conf since Instant Client libraries can cause conflicts with AS. The opmnctl tool may fail with the error Main: NLS Initialization Failed!!.

5. Download PHP 5.2.2 from http://www.php.net/downloads.php and extract the file:

cd $HOME

tar -jxf php-5.2.2.tar.bz2

6. Set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable to your AS install directory:

export ORACLE_HOME=$HOME/product/10.1.3/OracleAS_1

7. Shutdown the HTTP Server:

$ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/opmnctl stopproc ias-component=HTTP_Server

8. Edit $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf/httpd.conf and comment out the PHP 4 LoadModule line by prefixing it with #:

#LoadModule php4_module             libexec/libphp4.so

If you had enabled PHP 5 for AS 10.1.3.2, the commented line will be:

#LoadModule php5_module             libexec/libphp5.so

Also, backup $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/libexec/libphp5.so since it will be replaced.

9. Set environment variables required for the build to complete:

export PERL5LIB=$ORACLE_HOME/perl/lib

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

export CFLAGS=-DLINUX

There is no need to set CFLAGS if you have AS 10.1.3.2. It is needed with AS 10.1.3.0 to avoid a duplicate prototype error with gethostname() that results in compilation failure.

10. Configure PHP:

cd php-5.2.2

./configure

  --prefix=$ORACLE_HOME/php

  --with-config-file-path=$ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf

  --with-apxs=$ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/bin/apxs

  --with-oci8=instantclient,$HOME/instantclient_10_2

  --enable-sigchild

With the older AS 10.1.2 and older Instant Client releases, some users reportedly also specified --disable-rpath.

11. Make and install PHP

make

make install

Installation copies the binaries and updates $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf/httpd.conf, automatically adding the line:

LoadModule php5_module        libexec/libphp5.so

12. Backup and update $ORACLE_HOMEApache/Apache/conf/php.ini with options for PHP 5.2.2, for example all the new oci8 directives. Refer to $HOME/php-5.2.2/php.ini-recommended for new options.

13. The HTTP Server can now be restarted:

$ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/opmnctl startproc ias-component=HTTP_Server

Reminder: following these steps invalidates all support for AS, not just for the PHP component, and should not be used in production environments.

These steps are based on those that Michael Sekurski from one of our infrastructure groups sent me a while back. They will appear in the next release of the Underground PHP and Oracle Manual so let me know of any suggestions.

Oracle and Linux

cj — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 17:32:44 +0000

If you read this blog via a feedreader you might not have seen my link to Mike Olson's blog. Always worth hearing out, he recently discussed Oracle and Enterprise Linux (here and here). Mike was CEO of Sleepycat, makers of the open source embeddable database engine Berkeley DB, that Oracle acquired. He now looks after our Embedded Technologies.

As a sidebar to the topic, this IBM statement supporting Oracle's Enterprise Linux was pointed out to me.

When a few seconds are important: improving PHP Oracle connection speed

cj — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 02:44:38 +0000

I read the announcement about Oracle and the Open Invention Network. When I get back to San Francisco next week I hope to hear more about it from my team who are working faithfully to make Linux better.

In the meantime here's a PHP performance tip from Krishna Mohan.

Oracle has the concept of a client character set that application data is in. Oracle will convert data from the character set of the stored data into the client character set when data is fetched and vice versa when data is inserted. There may be a conversion cost or data loss if the client character set doesn't match the database character set.

The database character set can be chosen when the database is created. You can find what character set a database uses with this query:

    select value

    from nls_database_parameters

    where parameter = 'NLS_CHARACTERSET';

But you knew all that.

What Krishna pointed out was that specifying the client character set name as the optional fourth parameter to oci_pconnect() has a postive effect on performance. If you let the value default then PHP has to invoke code to determine what the client character set should be. This lookup may involve a potentially expensive environment check.

Test it yourself. Benchmark a few thousand oci_pconnect calls with and without the character set:

oci_pconnect("hr", "hr", "//localhost/XE", "AL32UTF8");

oci_pconnect("hr", "hr", "//localhost/XE");

I used AL32UTF8 which is the character set of the Oracle XE "Universal" database I have.

Testing with the database and PHP both on my little old machine I was getting figures like 0.6 vs 2.7 seconds for 50,000 pconnect calls in the one script. I saw some other results that showed only a three-times difference.

This tip is a snippet of information: use it wisely. The cost may not be anywhere near, say, the cost of writing a query poorly.

Oracle Instant Client RPMs are Back

cj — Thu, 4 Jan 2007 19:40:26 +0000

Linux RPMs for Oracle Instant Client are back. The Oracle 10.2.0.3 release on x86 has both RPMs and ZIP files available at http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/oci/instantclient/

Now you know why I hadn't been in a hurray to remove the references to RPMs in my popular article Installing PHP and the Oracle 10g Instant Client for Linux and Windows

[Instant Client is the small bundle of libraries needed for products and tools that want to connect to an Oracle DB. It supports C, C++ and Java clients. It's free to use, deploy and distribute.]

But I do need to update my installation article a bit: the RPMs are now also available from the "Oracle Software for Enterprise Linux 4 (i386)" channel on the Unbreakable Linux Network.

To install Instant Client, add the Oracle software channel to your system using the Linux Network web interface and then on the machine simply install the libraries and headers by running:

up2date oracle-instantclient-basic
up2date oracle-instantclient-devel

Other free things on the channel are the Oracle XE version of the Oracle database and the SQL Developer tool for - surprise - developing SQL.
They are also downloadable across the web from OTN but having them in the channel makes it a whole lot easier to manage.

Installing Oracle XE on Ubuntu with PHP

cj — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 01:26:20 +0000

I've been in the US and A for three months and finally got a TV. This means there is now time sitting on the couch with my wife that can be fruitfully spent clearing out my "to look at" URLs. One URL - I see it was from about the time I was in mid-flight - is Installing Oracle XE on Ubuntu with PHP. This needs no further description from me. I notice it says you need a static IP. I have a (nearly dead) laptop with the PHP/Oracle XE/Ubuntu stack working fine with a dynamic IP. Check out the references too. There are some good tips on the Ubuntu Forums link. Anyway, give it a whirl.

Open Source Developers' Conference in Melbourne next week

cj — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:26:35 +0000

Last year I really enjoyed the Open Source Developers' Conference in Melbourne (even despite my laptop dying on the morning of my presentation). Now I've moved to San Francisco I'm just a little jealous that my colleague Alison Holloway will be there to present a paper.

OSCON Portland 2006 is Next Week

cj — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 18:10:01 +0000

There are three Oracle talks at OSCON in Portland next week:

Getting Started in Linux Kernel Development, Randy Dunlap
Developing Berkeley DB Java Edition: Internals and War Stories, Charles Lamb
Onward and Upward: Faster PHP with Oracle, Christopher Jones

Come and say hi to us.

For PHP folk attending, Andrei
Zmieski has registered a group http://attendr.com/osconphp/. His email announcement put it like this: "It's a good way to aggregate photos/blogs/etc from the conference."

Getting Oracle XE Menus in the IceWM Window Manager

cj — Thu, 6 Jul 2006 21:50:49 +0000

On Linux, IceWM GNOME menus don't always get displayed as expected. If an executable is not found in the path, its menu item won't be displayed. Because of this, the Oracle 10g XE menus appear empty. You can either work out how to change your path so it is set prior to window manager startup, or use hard coded paths. I added Oracle XE menus with explicit paths to ~/.icewm/menu (these long lines are going to look ugly in this style sheet):

menu "Oracle Database 10g Express Edition"  folder {
  menu "Get Help" folder {
    prog "Go To Online Forum" /usr/share/pixmaps/oraclexe-gotoonlineforum.png /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/config/scripts/gotoonlineforum.sh
    prog "Read Documentation" /usr/share/pixmaps/oraclexe-readdocumentation.png /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/config/scripts/readdocumentation.sh
    prog "Read Online Help" /usr/share/pixmaps/oraclexe-readonlinehelp.png /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/config/scripts/readonlinehelp.sh
    prog "Register For Online Forum" /usr/share/pixmaps/oraclexe-registerforonlineforum.png /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/config/scripts/registerforonlineforum.sh
  }
  prog "Get Started" /usr/share/pixmaps/oraclexe-getstarted.png /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/config/scripts/gettingstarted.sh
  prog "Go To Database Home Page" /usr/share/pixmaps/oraclexe-gotodatabasehomepage.png /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/config/scripts/DatabaseHomePage.sh
  prog "Run SQL Command Line" /usr/share/pixmaps/oraclexe-runsqlcommandline.png /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/config/scripts/runsqlplus.sh
  prog "Start Database" /usr/share/pixmaps/oraclexe-startdatabase.png /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/config/scripts/startdb.sh
  prog "Stop Database" /usr/share/pixmaps/oraclexe-stopdatabase.png  /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/config/scripts/stopdb.sh
  prog "Backup Database" /usr/share/pixmaps/oraclexe-backup.png /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/config/scripts/backupdatabase.sh
  prog "Restore Database" /usr/share/pixmaps/oraclexe-restore.png /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/config/scripts/restoredatabase.sh
}

A couple of the menu items that open URLs didn't run with Firefox in my configuration. I fixed this by editing readdocumentation.sh and adding an http:// prefix to the URL. This changed

  /usr/bin/$i www.oracle.com/technology/xe/documentation

  /usr/bin/$i http://www.oracle.com/technology/xe/documentation

Similarly I edited gotoonlineforum.sh and added the http:// prefix, changing

  /usr/bin/$i www.oracle.com/technology/xe/forum

  /usr/bin/$i http://www.oracle.com/technology/xe/forum