SQL*Plus Instant Client using the Basic OCI package works with any NLS_LANG setting supported by the Oracle Database. It supports all character sets and language settings available in the Oracle Database.

SQL*Plus Instant Client using the lightweight OCI package displays error messages in English only and supports only specific character sets. It is significantly smaller than SQL*Plus Instant Client using the Basic OCI package.

Valid values for NLS_LANG parameters with the lightweight Instant Client are:

• language can be any valid language supported by the Oracle Database, however, error messages are only reported in English.

• territory can be any valid territory supported by the Oracle Database.

• charset is one of the following character sets:

  • US7ASCII

  • WE8DEC

  • WE8MSWIN1252

  • WE8ISO8859P1

  • UTF8

  • AL16UTF16

  • AL32UTF8

For example:

NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8

See Setting Up a Globalization Support Environment, and NLS_LANG Environment Variable for more information about NLS settings.

Error 5 initializing SQL*Plus
NLS initialization error

1. Download the RPM packages containing the SQL*Plus Instant Client package, and the OCI package from the OTN Instant Client page. Both packages must be from the same version.
2. Use rpm -i for the initial install of the RPM packages, or rpm -u to upgrade to a newer version of the packages.
3. Configure SQL*Plus Instant Client. See About Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client.

1. Download the zip files containing the SQL*Plus Instant Client package, and the OCI package from the OTN Instant Client page. Both packages must be from the same version.
2. Create a new directory, for example, /home/instantclient12_2 on UNIX or c:\instantclient12_2 on Windows.
3. Unzip the two packages into the new directory.
4. Configure SQL*Plus Instant Client. See About Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client.

1. Add the name of the directory containing the Instant Client libraries to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Remove any other Oracle directories.

   For example, to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH on Solaris in the Bourne or Korn shells:

   LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/19.1/client/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

2. Make sure the sqlplus executable installed from the RPM is the first found in your PATH. To test, enter which sqlplus which should return /usr/bin/sqlplus. If not, remove any other Oracle directories from PATH, or put /usr/bin before other SQL*Plus executables in PATH, or use an absolute or relative path to start SQL*Plus.

   For example, to set PATH in the bash shell:

   PATH=/usr/bin:${PATH}
   export PATH

   If you install multiple versions of SQL*Plus, you may need to change the symbolic link /usr/bin/sqlplus to the version of SQL*Plus matching the libraries in LD_LIBRARY_PATH. For 19.1, /usr/bin/sqlplus is a symbolic link to the SQL*Plus binary at /usr/lib/oracle/19.1/client/bin/sqlplus.

3. Set Oracle globalization variables required for your locale. A default locale will be assumed if no variables are set. See Locale Data for more information.

   For example:

   NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8
   export NLS_LANG

1. Add the name of the directory containing the Instant Client files to the appropriate shared library path LD_LIBRARY_PATH, LIBPATH or SHLIB_PATH. Remove any other Oracle directories.

   For example on Solaris in the Bourne or Korn shells:

   LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/instantclient_19_1:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

2. Add the directory containing the Instant Client files to the PATH environment variable. If it is not set, then an absolute or relative path must be used to start SQL*Plus. Remove any other Oracle directories from PATH. For example:

   PATH=/home/instantclient_19_1:${PATH}
   export PATH

3. Set Oracle globalization variables required for your locale. A default locale will be assumed if no variables are set. See Locale Data for more information.

   For example:

   NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8
   export NLS_LANG

1. Add the directory containing the Instant Client files to the PATH system environment variable. Remove any other Oracle directories from PATH.

   For example, add c:\instantclient12_2 to the beginning of PATH.

2. Set Oracle globalization variables required for your locale. A default locale will be assumed if no variables are set. See Locale Datafor more information. For example, to set NLS_LANG for a Japanese environment, create a user environment variable NLS_LANG set to JAPANESE_JAPAN.JA16EUC.

   If you have installed the lightweight Instant Client, see Lightweight Instant Client for information about supported NLS_LANG settings.

1. For installations on Linux from RPM packages, use rpm -e only on the SQL*Plus Instant Client package

   or

   For installations on UNIX and Windows, and installations on Linux from the Client Release media, manually remove the following SQL*Plus specific files:

   Table D-4 Instant Client Files in the SQL*Plus Package

   UNIX	Windows	Description
   sqlplus	sqlplus.exe	SQL*Plus executable
   libsqlplus.so	not applicable	SQL*Plus library
   libsqlplusic.so	orasqlplusic12.dll	SQL*Plus data shared library

2. Reset environment variables and remove tnsnames.ora if necessary.

1. For installations on Linux from RPM packages, use rpm -qa to find the SQL*Plus Instant Client and Basic OCI package names and run rpm -e to remove them

   or

   For installations on UNIX and Windows, and installations on Linux from the Client Release media, manually delete the directory containing the SQL*Plus executable and Oracle libraries.

   See Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client from the 12c Client Release Media for a list of the files you copied to the directory.

2. Reset environment variables such as PATH, SQLPATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH and TNS_ADMIN.
3. Remove tnsnames.ora if necessary.