Oracle Instant Client RPMs are Back
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.
