This blog post is an HowTo "Setup SQL*Plus to work on BASH" The commands illustrated in this howto are tested on Ubuntu 9.10 with Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production Installed.

What is SQL * Plus ?

SQL*Plus is a command line SQL and PL/SQL language interface and reporting tool that ships with the Oracle Database Client and Server software. It can be used interactively or driven from scripts. SQL*Plus is frequently used by DBAs and Developers to interact with the Oracle database.

Prerequisite

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 Installed

Once you have Oracle 10g Installed successfully you can go to

Applications > Oracle Database 10g Express Edition > Run SQL Command Line

and successfully run all your SQL PL/SQL easily but using SQL*Plus directly on BASH is the real fun, Below are the steps which will enable you to use SQL*Plus on BASH

1) set ORACLE_HOME

The IT environment today in any organization is a sort of a mixture where many different Operating Systems are used, and Windows Active Domain Controller exists in majority of such organization.

Below is a 4 step How to on "Connecting Linux (Ubuntu) Systems to Active Directory Setup"

1) Update the Software Repositories

sudo apt-get update

2) Install Required Packages (likewise-open)

sudo apt-get install likewise-open


3) Join The Domain using Domain Administrator Account, replace Administrator with Domain Administrator Username and fqdn..domain with the Fully Qualified Domain Name

sudo domainjoin-cli join fqdn.domain Administrator


4) Update the Startup Scripts

sudo update-rc.d likewise-open defaults

I am sure that by now you would have at least seen one domain name which was written in a non-english language but still if you have not seen any such domain the screen shot below would explain the entire story. I would try to explain the mechanism behind these kind of Domain Names in this post

We always hear people saying ubuntu works well only when you have a strong internet connection as the Install CD doesn't contain all the packages required agreed now a CD cannot contain all the packages you require so you need to download the packages but there is a clear misunderstanding among new users that they always need to download these packages, Its essential to download them once but if you are reinstalling ubuntu on new machine you need not download these packages all over again if you have installed required packages on one of the machine you can use the content of below listed directory for installation

/var/cache/apt/archives

this directory contains the debian packages download by the apt-get :)

so have fun reuse the content for each install and save time and bandwidth