## Requirements

The OCI8 1.4 extension is included with PHP 5.3, PHP 5.4 and PHP 5.5. It is also available from » PECL. A newer OCI8 2.0 version is available only from » PECL. OCI8 1.4 requires Oracle 12c, 11g, 10g or 9iR2 client libraries and will install on PHP 4.3.9 onwards. OCI8 2.0 requires Oracle 12c, 11g or 10g client libraries and will install on PHP 5.2 onwards.

If the Oracle Database is on the same machine as PHP, the database software already contains the necessary libraries. When PHP is on a different machine, use the free » Oracle Instant Client libraries.

To use Oracle Instant Client, install the `basic` or `basiclite` Oracle Instant Client ZIP file or RPM package. When building PHP from source code, also install the `sdk` ZIP file or `devel` RPM package.

You must run PHP with the same, or a more recent, version of the Oracle libraries that OCI8 was built with.

On Windows, the php_oci8 DLL needs Oracle client libraries from version 10gR2 or greater. In PHP 5.3 up to and including PHP 5.3.5, the php_oci8_11g DLL requires Oracle 11gR1 or greater client libraries. From PHP 5.3.6 the php_oci8_11g DLL requires Oracle 11gR2 or greater client libraries. The php_oci8_12c DLL from PECL requires Oracle 12cR1 client libraries. With some versions of Instant Client you may additionally need mfc71.dll and msvcr71.dll libraries.

> Note:

> If OCI8 uses 9iR2 client libraries, then PHP can connect to Oracle Database 8i, 9iR2, 10g or 11g. If OCI8 uses 10gR2 client libraries, the database can be 9iR2, 10g, 11g or 12c. If OCI8 uses 11g client libraries, the database can be 9iR2, 10g, 11g or 12c. If OCI8 uses 12c client libraries, the database can be 10gR2, 11g or 12c.

> Note:

> Full OCI8 feature support is only available when using the most recent versions of the Oracle client libraries and database.