Installing CX Oracle for Python & Mac OS X. Instructions exist around the web, but they seem to be piecemeal and incomplete.

cx_oracle_instructions.md

Installing cx_Oracle for Python/ Mac OSX

Portions taken from http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~mitra/csSpring2011/cs327/cx_mac.html (in case that link ever dies.)

Assume you've got homebrew installed.

Download the following files from Oracle

• instantclient-basic-$VERSION-macosx-x64.zip
• instantclient-sdk-$VERSION-macosx-x64.zip

Create a directory /usr/lib/share/oracle

export ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lib/share/oracle
export VERSION=11.2.0.3.0
export ARCH=x86_64

mkdir -p $ORACLE_HOME

Unpack both files to that directory:

cd $ORACLE_HOME
tar -xzf instantclient-basic-$VERSION-macosx-x64.zip
tar -xzf instantclient-sdk-$VERSION-macosx-x64.zip

ln -s libclntsh.dylib.11.2 libclntsh.dylib
ln -s libocci.dylib.11.2 libocci.dylib

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME

(Note I did not have to do anything with ottclasses.zip as suggested in the original utexas instructions.)

If you're using Pip:

Last step is to simply run pip, you might have to add an arch flag:

env ARCHFLAGS="-arch $ARCH" pip install cx_Oracle

If you're building from source:

Download cx_Oracle-version.tar.gz from Sourceforge

export CX_ORA_VERSION=5.1.2
tar -xzf cx_Oracle-$CX_ORA_VERSION.tar.gz
cd cx_Oracle-$CX_ORA_VERSION

env ARCHFLAGS="-arch $ARCH" python setup.py build
sudo python setup.py install

Notes

Some folks have recommended compiling for 32-bit (i386) instead, although I'm not sure why. 64 bit seems to work for me so YMMV.

Basically:

# compile cx_Oracle for 32-bit (requires downloading 32-bit instantclient sources)
ARCHFLAGS="-arch i386" pip install cx_Oracle

# then make your virtualenv python 32-bit only:
virtualenv .
mv bin/python python.fat
lipo python.fat -remove x86_64 -output bin/python

See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8169946/cant-get-cx-oracle-to-work-with-python-version-2-7-mac-os-10-7-2-lion-mis/8452731#8452731

I managed to install instant clients as per this guide and installed cx_Oracle with pip.

But while importing in python I get the following error

Python 3.6.0 (default, Mar  4 2017, 12:32:34)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 8.0.0 (clang-800.0.42.1)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import cx_Oracle
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: dlopen(/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/cx_Oracle.cpython-36m-darwin.so, 2): Symbol not found: _OCIBindByName2
  Referenced from: /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/cx_Oracle.cpython-36m-darwin.so
  Expected in: flat namespace
 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/cx_Oracle.cpython-36m-darwin.so
>>>

Googled it, but couldn't find any similar issues

@jobforlife you save my day 👍

THANK YOU! its like they dont want anyone to use it...