“Oracle Instant Client” vs Debian (resp. Ubuntu)

• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/database-technologies/instant-client/
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/database-technologies/instant-client/overview/
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/database-technologies/instant-client/downloads/

Of course “Oracle Instant Client”

• is closed source,
• does not comply with Debian rules,
• and cannot / may not be distributed through Debian channels.

Oracle supplies RPM files for “Linux x86-64” but no “.deb” files. And presumably both Oracle and also the “Debian Project” disallow redistribution of “Oracle Instant Client” components as Debian packages.

If you still need “Oracle Instant Client” components as Debian packages, converting RPM to “.deb” using “alien” together with “fakeroot” (instead of sudo) works quite straight forward — you may want to have a look here:

• https://salsa.debian.org/perl-team/modules/packages/libdbd-oracle-perl/blob/master/debian/README (using alien and fakeroot)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(software)
• https://www.howtoforge.com/converting_rpm_to_deb_with_alien
• …/?title=Debian_package_management#rpm2deb — my wiki article somewhere …
• (obsolete: http://Jochen.Hayek.name/wp/blog-en/2018/04/13/rpm2deb — superseded by my wiki article)
• https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/36609/how-to-install-configure-oracle-instant-client-on-ubuntu#36610
• https://github.com/eikonomega/oracle_instant_client_for_ubuntu_64bit – encapsulates the “alien” calls for you — I personally prefer to see how “alien” gets called exactly on the command line
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Oracle%20Instant%20Client

fakeroot vs sudo:

• https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/9714/what-is-the-need-for-fakeroot-command-in-linux#9720
• https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/pseudo/fakeroot.1.en.html
• https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/fakeroot-ng/fakeroot.1.en.html