Free, light-weight, and easily installed Oracle Database tools, libraries and SDKs
Oracle Instant Client enables applications to connect to a local or remote Oracle Database for development and production deployment. The Instant Client libraries provide the necessary network connectivity, as well as basic and high end data features, to make full use of Oracle Database. It underlies the Oracle APIs of popular languages and environments including Node.js, Python and PHP, as well as providing access for OCI, OCCI, JDBC, ODBC and Pro*C applications. Tools included in Instant Client, such as SQL*Plus and Oracle Data Pump, provide quick and convenient data access.
Oracle Instant Client
What's New
Oracle Linux has Instant Client RPMs without click-through
Instant Client RPM packages for Oracle Linux can now be installed without needing a click-through from yum.oracle.com for Oracle Linux 7 and Oracle Linux 6.
Instant Client is available for Docker
A Docker image with the Basic, SDK and SQL*Plus packages is available on the Docker Store or from the Oracle Container Registry. Docker build files are available on GitHub.
Instant Client Features
- Free to download, deploy and distribute
- Small footprint
- ZIPs available for quick, one-step install
- RPM Packages also available for Linux
- Same libraries as full Oracle Database or Oracle Client
- Includes tools such as SQL*Plus and Data Pump
- Widely used and tested.
Instant Client applications are cloud ready
Deploy applications using Instant Client in the cloud, or connect to a cloud database.
Whether your applications are in the cloud or on-premise, you can install Instant Client and connect to cloud databases. Follow the normal installation process for your operating system. Some cloud-specific references are shown below.
Instant Client Packages
| Instant Client Package | Description | References |
| Basic | All files required to run OCI, OCCI, and JDBC-OCI applications for Oracle Database | OCI OCCI JDBC-OCI |
| Basic Light | Smaller version of the Basic package, with only English error messages and Unicode, ASCII, and Western European character set support | OCI OCCI JDBC-OCI |
| SDK | Additional header files and an example makefile for developing OCI and OCCI applications | |
| SQL*Plus | Additional package providing the SQL*Plus command-line tool for executing SQL and PL/SQL statements and scripts | SQL*Plus |
| Tools | Additional tools including Data Pump, SQL*Loader and Workload Replay Client | Data Pump and SQL*Loader WRC |
| ODBC | Additional libraries providing ODBC | ODBC |
| Precompilers | Additional tools and libraries providing the Pro*C and Pro*COBOL precompilers | Pro*C Pro*COBOL |
| JDBC-OCI Supplement | Additional libraries to support Internationalization | JDBC-OCI |
Technical Resources
- Oracle Call Interface Developer Center
- Oracle C++ Call Interface Developer Center
- JDBC Developer Center
- ODBC Developer Center
- OCI Discussion Forum
- JDBC Discussion Forum
- ODBC Discussion Forum
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- Oracle Database "XE" Express Edition - Free database for Linux and Windows
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