Problem with environment variables and cx_Oracle

[Brandon Taylor]

Hello everyone,

Here's my setup: OS X (10.5.6 - Intel), Oracle Instant Clinet 10_2,
Python 2.6.1, Django trunk

I have my Oracle instantclient folder at: /Users/bft228/Library/Oracle/
instantclient_10_2

In my .bash_profile, I have ORACLE_HOME and LD_LIBRARY_PATH specified
as:

ORACLE_HOME="$HOME/Library/Oracle/instantclient_10_2"
export ORACLE_HOME

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH


When I try to compile cx_Oracle-4.4.1 or 5.0.1, I get an error stating
that it cannot find an Oracle installation. setup.py will error here:

# try to determine the Oracle home
userOracleHome = os.environ.get("ORACLE_HOME")


Now, here's where things get wierd...
If I: echo $ORACLE_HOME = /Users/bft228/Library/Oracle/
instantclient_10_2
If I: python
      import os
      os.environ

      'ORACLE_HOME': '/Users/bft228/Library/Oracle/
instantclient_10_2',
      'LD_LIBRARY_PATH': '/Users/bft228/Library/Oracle/
instantclient_10_2'

If I hard-code the userOracleHome, cx_Oracle will compile, but I'm
getting errors wen attempting to connect to Oracle, like:
cx_Oracle.InterfaceError: Unable to acquire Oracle environment handle

I've been wrestling with this for quite some time. My Oracle person
assures me that my user has appropriate permissions for the schema. My
Oracle experience is pretty limited, but this seems like it's an issue
with the environment on my Mac.

Does anyone have any ideas? I would REALLY appreciate some insight.

Kind regards,
Brandon Taylor

Senior Web Developer
The University of Texas at Austin