Trouble installing ruby-oci8 gem - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm trying to install a gem ruby-oci8 on the rails.
I get the following error,
$ gem install ruby-oci8
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR: Error installing ruby-oci8:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
current directory: /home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/gems/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1/ext/oci8
/home/solovievga/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.4.2/bin/ruby -r ./siteconf20180213-21757-1hli0rl.rb extconf.rb
checking for load library path...
LD_LIBRARY_PATH is not set.
checking ld.so.conf... no
checking for cc... ok
checking for gcc... yes
checking for LP64... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for ruby header... ok
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary
libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more details. You may
need configuration options.
Provided configuration options:
--with-opt-dir
--without-opt-dir
--with-opt-include
--without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
--with-opt-lib
--without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
--with-make-prog
--without-make-prog
--srcdir=.
--curdir
--ruby=/home/solovievga/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.4.2/bin/$(RUBY_BASE_NAME)
--with-instant-client
--without-instant-client
/home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/gems/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1/ext/oci8/oraconf.rb:909:in `get_home': RuntimeError (RuntimeError)
from /home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/gems/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1/ext/oci8/oraconf.rb:728:in `initialize'
from /home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/gems/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1/ext/oci8/oraconf.rb:269:in `new'
from /home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/gems/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1/ext/oci8/oraconf.rb:269:in `get'
from extconf.rb:22:in `<main>'
---------------------------------------------------
Error Message:
Set the environment variable ORACLE_HOME if Oracle Full Client.
Append the path of Oracle client libraries to LD_LIBRARY_PATH if Oracle Instant Client.
Backtrace:
/home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/gems/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1/ext/oci8/oraconf.rb:909:in `get_home'
/home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/gems/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1/ext/oci8/oraconf.rb:728:in `initialize'
/home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/gems/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1/ext/oci8/oraconf.rb:269:in `new'
/home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/gems/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1/ext/oci8/oraconf.rb:269:in `get'
extconf.rb:22:in `<main>'
---------------------------------------------------
See:
* http://www.rubydoc.info/github/kubo/ruby-oci8/file/docs/install-full-client.md for Oracle full client
* http://www.rubydoc.info/github/kubo/ruby-oci8/file/docs/install-instant-client.md for Oracle instant client
* http://www.rubydoc.info/github/kubo/ruby-oci8/file/docs/install-on-osx.md for OS X
* http://www.rubydoc.info/github/kubo/ruby-oci8/file/docs/report-installation-issue.md to report an issue.
To see why this extension failed to compile, please check the mkmf.log which can be found here:
/home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/extensions/x86_64-linux/2.4.0/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1/mkmf.log
extconf failed, exit code 1
Gem files will remain installed in /home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/gems/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /home/solovievga/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.2/extensions/x86_64-linux/2.4.0/ruby-oci8-2.2.5.1/gem_make.out
I wonder how I can install the ruby-oci8 package?

Answer 1

You have to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH to install ruby-oci8 gem. Here I am assuming you are using linux os. Try this on your terminal.
$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
$ gem install ruby-oci8
Edit:
If you uses mswin32 ruby, use the following command instead.
gem install --platform x86-mingw32 ruby-oci8
or
gem install --platform x64-mingw32 ruby-oci8
Let me know If you have any query or question.
Happy Coding

Answer 2

These steps take you through the instant client installation process as well, just to provide some context. Download the instant and SDK zip files here:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/linuxx86-64soft-092277.html
Unzip both files in the following directory as root.
/opt/oracle
Enter the instantclient_12_2 directory following the unzip and create a symlink for the libclntsh.so file:
ln -s libclntsh.so.12.1 libclntsh.so
Now, depending on your OS, you'll need to update your LD_LIBRARY_PATH location. In Ubuntu, do the following:
sudo nano /etc/ld.so.conf.d/moreLibs.conf
And enter the following in the file and save
/opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2
Now run the following command:
sudo ldconfig
And rerun your gem install
gem install ruby-oci8

Answer 3

This solution worked for me
Before executing bundle install, Run below code on the console or add it to bash and source.
Export OCI_DIR=/opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2
Here /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2 is path to instantclient on my mac machine.
You need to download instantclient from
https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/instant-client/downloads.html
Unzip the download into /opt/oracle directory and export OCI_DIR environment variable.

Answer 4

I have a similar problem installing the ruby-oci8 gem. In my case, there is already an app that uses it. When I deployed another app using the same gem, during bundle install, this error occurred. It asked for the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. Apparently, the installer of the old app did not set the variable to persist.
I thought that there should be an oracle library somewhere in the server so I searched for it. It was not in /opt but in /usr/lib. I set the variable to /usr/lib/oracle/11.1/client64/lib then the gem was installed smoothly.