Problems with compiling rlm_sql_oracle module

[Peter Nixon]

On Tue 17 Aug 2010, Dan Lark wrote:
> I am desperately trying to get FR compile from the 2.1.9 source tree. In
> looking through the configure.in file for the rlm_sql_oracle driver from
> src/modules/rlm_sql/drivers/rlm_sql_oracle, it would appear that it is
> either looking for the 8i/9i full blown client install, or a 10g/11g full
> install or a specific version of the InstantClient, 10.1.0.3. (This
> particular InstantClient release is no longer available, btw.)
> 
> So now my questions:
> 
> 1. What would the best way for me to make the configure script best
> recognize the release of the client software that I have installed? 2.
> The configure.in (and therefore the configure script) are hardcoded to a
> specific release and architecture. In my case, I am trying to do an
> x86_64 build. Is there a way to make this more generic? 3. I have tried
> doing some stuff with the configure.in file to make it work properly with
> my release of the InstantClient, but running autoconf against the
> modified configure.in file creates a configure script with syntax errors.
> It would appear that the original configure script is based on autoconf
> 2.59, whereas the installed version that I have 2.61. Would that make a
> difference? 4. Based on my observations, re. the InstantClient version
> information, it would appear that this code is probably stale. Is this
> currently even being worked on?
> 
> Any suggestions?

Hi Dan

I am probably the one to blame for the nasty hacks that support InstaClient. 
As someone who is definately not an Oracle expert, and not particularly an 
autoconf expert I had a client about 4 or 5 years ago who changed a project 
mid-stream from PostgreSQL to Oracle. It didn't really seem sane to do a full 
Oracle install on the front end Linux RADIUS servers (When the Oracle cluster 
itself was on Solaris boxes), so I got things "working" with InstaClient, 
commited the patches and probably no-one has looked closely at it since.

I unfortunately can't offer you a lot of help (it was quite some time ago and 
the details are hazy) other than to say that I remember having a lot more 
trouble rewriting bits of the FreeRADIUS PHP web interface to support Oracle 
(and adding some custom PL/SQL stored procs) than the actual configure 
changes. I would suggest having a go at updating/fixing the configure code 
and see how far you get... It's not that hard :-)

You might even end up as the new Oracle maintainer for FreeRADIUS... :-D

Cheers

-- 

Peter Nixon
http://peternixon.net/