[R-sig-DB] RODBC connection to Oracle on 64-bit RHEL box failing

[Harlan Harris]

Marc, thanks very much...


On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwartz using me.com> wrote:

> Is Actual making a 64 bit Oracle ODBC driver available?  I had not seen
> anything on that and had in fact queried them some time ago specifically on
> the availability of one. I use their 32 bit version on Snow Leopard.
>

Jonathan Monroe at Actual said on 3/5 that they would be releasing it "later
next week", which obviously didn't happen. The beta is available
at:*http://www.actualtechnologies.com/downloads/Actual_Oracle30_rc3_beta.dmg
*

It works well enough for the command line unixODBC tools to successfully
pull data, anyway.


>
> Two comments:
>
> 1. The segfault is indeed typically a consequence of a mix of 32/64 bit
> tools. That being said, I am not seeing anything obvious to suggest that one
> component or another is 32 bit.  You might want to check your environment
> variables (eg. LD_LIBRARY_PATH, PATH or one of the Oracle variables) or that
> there is an entry in /etc/ld.so.conf that is pointing to a 32 bit version of
> either Oracle's files or unixODBC. Also, be sure that any relevant entries
> in odbcinst.ini and odbc.ini are also pointing to the proper Oracle ODBC
> drivers.
>

OK, we'll look around for issues there, and will report back if we find
anything.


>
> 2. If you manage to solve the above problem, you have another potential
> hurdle in front of you, which is that there have been reports of problems
> connecting to Oracle using 64 bit R/RODBC on 64 bit Linux. It would be
> helpful, if you do solve the above issue, to try to connect and to see what
> level of success you have. Prof. Ripley is aware of the issue and either is
> or will shortly be testing the 64 bit toolchain on Linux to see if he can
> identify the etiology of the problem and perhaps offer a fix or workaround.
>

Yes, I saw the earlier bug report. I'll keep the list updated.


> I have not used ROracle, but others have and seem to have good luck with
> it. I would not let the last version dates of either unixODBC or ROracle
> sway your opinion. If the components are pretty stable and are not
> influenced by updates on the R or Oracle end of things, there may very well
> be no reason to update them. But I would certainly defer to the respective
> maintainers on those points.
>

I tried to install ROracle, but it failed because "proc" was not installed.
I see that it's a separate Oracle software piece, and we will try to install
that to see if it helps.

It sounds like RODBC is actively being supported, although we're concerned
that one person with a day job is the only developer able to work on the
Oracle components. (Prof. Ripley is superhuman, admittedly, but there's only
one of him!) Is the maintainer of ROracle, David James, on this mailing
list?

 -Harlan


> HTH,
>
> Marc Schwartz
>
>

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