cx_Oracle error when used in a cron job

700084

Hi everyone,
I've installed cx_Oracle and used it successfully in a number of python scripts, but it's throwing an error when I try to run one of those python scripts as a cron job.

Below is the traceback that I'm logging from the cronjob:

 
<<snipped>>
  import cx_Oracle
  File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/cx_Oracle.py", line 7, in <module>
  File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/cx_Oracle.py", line 6, in __bootstrap__
ImportError: libclntsh.so.11.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Again, the script works fine if I run it manually (i.e. "python script.py"). I've googled around for hours and can't seem to figure this out.

Anyone have suggestions?
It's greatly appreciated.
Serdar

390020

I would say there's something defined in your environment that's not available at cron time. For example, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, it might be defined in your ~/.bashrc
You could try modify the os environ before importing cx_Oracle.
E.g:

import os
os.environ['LD_LIBRARY_PATH'] = ':~/oracle/product/10.2.0/client/lib'
import cx_Oracle
..

700084

Mariano wrote:
I would say there's something defined in your environment that's not available at cron time. For example, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, it might be defined in your ~/.bashrc

This is precisely what turned out to the be problem. I had a number of environment variables set in my .bashrc, including ORACLE_HOME, LD_LIBRARY_PATH and TNS_NAME.

You could try modify the os environ before importing cx_Oracle.
E.g:

import os
os.environ['LD_LIBRARY_PATH'] = ':~/oracle/product/10.2.0/client/lib'
import cx_Oracle
..

The above approach did not work in my case. Instead, I had to copy all of the variables mentioned above from my .bashrc into the top of my crontab, so that it appeared like this:

[email protected]
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/lib/oracle/11.1/client/lib/
ORACLE_HOME='/usr/lib/oracle/11.1/client'
LD_LIBRARY_PATH ='/usr/lib/oracle/11.1/client/lib'
TNS_ADMIN  =  '/home/username'  # where my tnsnames.ora file lives

# m h  dom mon dow   command
<<snipped>>

Now everything's working like a charm. Thanks so much for the help Mariano. You rock!

Regards,
Serdar

390020

Glad to know it help you to debug the problem.
It seems I made a mistake in my suggestion (os.environ is a dict, actually it seems I don't really know who to publish in this forum):
import os
os.environ\['LD_LIBRARY_PATH'\] = ':~/oracle/product/10.2.0/client/lib'

anyway... if it works, don't fix it!