Instant Client Installation for macOS (Intel x86)

Installing Instant Client 19.16 on macOS

Instant Client 19.16 supports macOS High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur and Monterey.

1. In Finder, double click on all desired Instant Client .dmg packages to mount them. All installations require the Basic or Basic Light package.
2. Open a terminal window and change directory to one of the packages, for example:

cd /Volumes/instantclient-basic-macos.x64-19.16.0.0.0dbru

3. Run the install_ic.sh script:

 
$ ./install_ic.sh

This copies the contents of all currently mounted Instant Client .dmg packages to /User/$USER/Downloads/instantclient_19_16

4. In Finder, eject the mounted Instant Client packages
5. If you intend to co-locate optional Oracle configuration files such as tnsnames.ora, sqlnet.ora, ldap.ora, or oraaccess.xml with Instant Client, put them in the instantclient_19_16/network/admin subdirectory. This is the default Oracle configuration directory for applications linked with this Instant Client.
   
   Alternatively, Oracle configuration files can be put in another, accessible directory. Then set the environment variable TNS_ADMIN to that directory name.
6. To use binaries such as sqlplus from the SQL*Plus package, unzip the package to the same directory as the Basic package and then update your PATH environment variable, for example:

export PATH=~/Downloads/instantclient_19_16:$PATH

7. Run SQL*Plus and connect using your database credentials and connection string: sqlplus hr/welcome@localhost/orclpdb
8. Refer to your application's installation instructions for how to use Instant Client with that application.

Installing Instant Client 18.1 on macOS

Instant Client 18.1 supports macOS Mojave and High Sierra.

1. Download the desired Instant Client ZIP files. All installations require the Basic or Basic Light package.
2. Unzip the packages into a single directory such as ~/instantclient_18_1 that is accessible to your application. For example:

cd ~
unzip instantclient-basic-macos.x64-18.1.0.0.0.zip

3. Add links to ~/lib or /usr/local/lib to enable applications to find the libraries. For example, OCI based applications could do:

 
mkdir ~/lib
ln -s ~/instantclient_18_1/libclntsh.dylib ~/lib/

Alternatively, copy the required libraries. For example, to use OCI applications:

  
mkdir ~/lib
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_18_1/libclntsh.dylib.18.1 ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_18_1/libclntshcore.dylib.18.1 ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_18_1/libons.dylib ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_18_1/libnnz18.dylib ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_18_1/libociei.dylib ~/lib/
ln -s ~/lib/libclntsh.dylib.18.1 ~/lib/libclntsh.dylib

Note: Custom OCI applications, such as those that bundle Instant Client, may want to link with -rpath set to the directory containing Instant Client 18.1 instead of relying on libraries being in ~/lib.

4. If you intend to co-locate optional Oracle configuration files such as tnsnames.ora, sqlnet.ora, ldap.ora, or oraaccess.xml with Instant Client, put them in the instantclient_18_1/network/admin subdirectory. This is the default Oracle configuration directory for applications linked with this Instant Client.

Alternatively, Oracle configuration files can be put in another, accessible directory. Then set the environment variable TNS_ADMIN to that directory name.

5. To use binaries such as sqlplus from the SQL*Plus package, unzip the package to the same directory as the Basic package and then update your PATH environment variable, for example:

export PATH=~/instantclient_18_1:$PATH

6. Run SQL*Plus and connect using your database credentials and connection string:

sqlplus hr/welcome@localhost/orclpdb

Installing Instant Client 12.2 on macOS

Instant Client 12.2 supports macOS High Sierra, Sierra and El Capitan.

1. Download the desired Instant Client ZIP files. All installations require the Basic or Basic Light package.
2. Unzip the packages into a single directory such as ~/instantclient_12_2 that is accessible to your application. For example:

cd ~
unzip instantclient-basic-macos.x64-12.2.0.1.0.zip

3. Add links to ~/lib or /usr/local/lib to enable applications to find the libraries. For example, OCI based applications could do:

mkdir ~/lib
ln -s ~/instantclient_12_2/libclntsh.dylib ~/lib/
ln -s ~/instantclient_12_2/libclntsh.dylib.12.1 ~/lib/

Alternatively, copy the required libraries. For example, to use OCI applications:

mkdir ~/lib
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2/libclntsh.dylib.12.1 ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2/libclntshcore.dylib.12.1 ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2/libons.dylib ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2/libnnz12.dylib ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2/libociei.dylib ~/lib/
ln -s ~/lib/libclntsh.dylib.12.1 ~/lib/libclntsh.dylib

Note: Custom OCI applications, such as those that bundle Instant Client, may want to link with -rpath set to the directory containing Instant Client 12.2 instead of relying on libraries being in ~/lib.

4. If you intend to co-locate optional Oracle configuration files such as tnsnames.ora, sqlnet.ora, ldap.ora, or oraaccess.xml with Instant Client, then create a network/admin subdirectory. For example:

mkdir -p ~/instantclient_12_2/network/admin

This is the default Oracle configuration directory for applications linked with this Instant Client.

Alternatively, Oracle configuration files can be put in another, accessible directory. Then set the environment variable TNS_ADMIN to that directory name.

5. To use binaries such as sqlplus from the SQL*Plus package, unzip the package to the same directory as the Basic package and then update your PATH environment variable, for example:

export PATH=~/instantclient_12_2:$PATH

6. Run SQL*Plus and connect using your database credentials and connection string:

sqlplus hr/welcome@localhost/orclpdb

Installing Instant Client 12.1 on macOS

Instant Client 12.1 supports macOS El Capitan, Yosemite and Mavericks.

1. Download the desired Instant Client ZIP files. All installations require the Basic or Basic Light package.
2. Unzip the packages into a single directory such as "~/instantclient_12_1". For example, to use SQL*Plus:

cd ~
unzip instantclient-basic-macos.x64-12.1.0.2.0.zip

3. Create the appropriate libclntsh.dylib link for the version of Instant Client. For example:

cd ~/instantclient_12_1
ln -s libclntsh.dylib.12.1 libclntsh.dylib

OCCI programs will additionally need:

ln -s libocci.dylib.12.1 libocci.dylib

4. Add links to ~/lib or /usr/local/lib to enable applications to find the libraries. For example, OCI based applications could do:

mkdir ~/lib
ln -s ~/instantclient_12_1/libclntsh.dylib ~/lib/
ln -s ~/instantclient_12_1/libclntsh.dylib.12.1 ~/lib/

Alternatively, copy the required libraries. For example, to use OCI applications:

mkdir ~/lib
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_1/libclntsh.dylib.12.1 ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_1/libclntshcore.dylib.12.1 ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_1/libons.dylib ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_1/libnnz12.dylib ~/lib/
cp /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_1/libociei.dylib ~/lib/

Note: Custom OCI applications, such as those that bundle Instant Client, may want to link with -rpath set to the directory containing Instant Client 12.1 instead of relying on libraries being in ~/lib.

5. To be able to run SQL*Plus, update PATH. For example:

export PATH=~/instantclient_12_1:$PATH

6. Run SQL*Plus and connect using your database credentials and connection string:

sqlplus hr/welcome@localhost/orclpdb

Installing Instant Client 11.2 on macOS

Instant Client 11.2 supports macOS X Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks.

7. Download the desired Instant Client ZIP files. All installations require the Basic or Basic Light package.
8. Unzip the packages into a single directory such as "~/instantclient_11_2". For example, to use SQL*Plus:

cd ~
unzip instantclient-basic-macos.x64-11.2.0.4.0.zip
unzip instantclient-sqlplus-macos.x64-11.2.0.4.0.zip

< Create the appropriate libclntsh.dylib link for the version of Instant Client. For example:

cd ~/instantclient_11_2
ln -s libclntsh.dylib.11.1 libclntsh.dylib

Note: OCCI programs will additionally need:

ln -s libocci.dylib.11.1 libocci.dylib

9. Add links to "~/lib" for required Basic package libraries. For example, to use OCI programs (including SQL*Plus, Python's cx_Oracle, PHP's OCI8, Node.js's node-oracledb, and Ruby's ruby-oci8 driver):

mkdir ~/lib
ln -s ~/instantclient_11_2/{libclntsh.dylib.11.1,libnnz11.dylib,\
libociei.dylib} ~/lib/

10. To be able to run SQL*Plus, add its libraries to "~/lib", and update PATH. For example:

ln -s ~/instantclient_11_2/{libsqlplus.dylib,libsqlplusic.dylib} ~/lib/
export PATH=~/instantclient_11_2:$PATH

11. Run SQL*Plus and connect using your database credentials and connection string:

sqlplus hr/welcome@localhost/orclpdb

More Information

Instant Client Home Page

Oracle Database Client Installation Guide for Apple Mac OS X (Intel) (11g Release 2)