"Failed building wheel for psycopg2" - MacOSX using virtualenv and pip

Question

I'm attempting to make a website with a few others for the first time, and have run into a weird error when trying to use Django/Python/VirtualEnv. I've found solutions to this problem for other operating systems, such as Ubuntu, but can't find any good solutions for Mac.

This is the relevant code being run:

virtualenv -p python3 venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

After running that block, I get the following errors:

AssertionError

Failed building wheel for django-toolbelt Running setup.py bdist_wheel for psycopg2

...

AssertionError

Failed building wheel for psycopg2 Failed to build django-toolbelt psycopg2

I believe I've installed the "django-toolbelt" and "psycopg2", so I'm not sure why it would be failing.

The only difference I can think of is that I did not use the command

sudo apt-get install libpq-dev

as was instructed for Ubuntu usage as I believe that installing postgresql with brew took care of the header.

Thanks for any help or insight!

My answer was found here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26288042/error-installing-psycopg2-library-not-found-for-lssl — Grant Eagon, Oct 26 '19 at 14:39
This solution worked for wheel, venv & pip - https://stackoverflow.com/a/59596814/984471 — Manohar Reddy Poreddy, Jan 05 '20 at 03:42
running sudo apt-get install libpq-dev and pip install psycopg2-binary worked for me, also after that i could run pipenv install psycopg2 — emad22552, Jan 21 '21 at 10:51

score 66 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 17 '16 at 17:52

66

I had the same problem on Arch linux. I think that it's not an OS dependant problem. Anyway, I fixed this by finding the outdated packages and updating then.

pip uninstall psycopg2
pip list --outdated
pip install --upgrade wheel
pip install --upgrade setuptools
pip install psycopg2

hope this helps...

answered Jan 17 '16 at 17:52

Nikolaos Dalezios

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Worked like a charm for me on OS X, thanks! (OS X 10.11.2, Python 3.5.1, pip 7.1.2) – Michael Thompson Jan 19 '16 at 21:19
1

Worked for me as well. I believe for my specific virtualenv that the `wheel` package was out of date, as `setuptools` was fine. So it may just be necessary to run `pip install --upgrade wheel`. – raiderrobert Feb 15 '17 at 19:27
Worked like a charm on Ubuntu 18.04 – amedina Nov 11 '19 at 09:33

score 54 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 24 '19 at 07:15

54

I was also getting same error. Using Python 3.7.3 and pip 19.1.1.

error screen

I used following command.

pip install psycopg2-binary==2.8.3

edited Jun 24 '19 at 07:15

adiga

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answered Jun 24 '19 at 07:14

Abhishek Singh

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it worked for me too with python 3.6.5 and pip 19.2.1 – Duccio Piovani Aug 09 '19 at 12:55
2

Thanks, @abhishek, this worked for me as well for python3.7.5, django2.2, and pip19.3.1 – bhattraideb Dec 01 '19 at 04:52
2

For python 3.8 use pip install psycopg2-binary – jaycode Jun 08 '20 at 17:55
Worked for me on Mojave with Python 3.7 – RicarHincapie Dec 27 '20 at 21:52

score 49 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 11 '20 at 15:55

49

For MacOS users

After trying all the above methods (which did not work for me on MacOS 10.14), that one worked :

Install openssl with brew install openssl if you don't have it already.
add openssl path to LIBRARY_PATH :

export LIBRARY_PATH=$LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/opt/openssl/lib/

install psycopg2 with pip pip3 install psycopg2

answered Apr 11 '20 at 15:55

Romain

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Worked for me after ld: library not found for -lssl – Apr 16 '20 at 09:57
Worked for me on 11 beta – yasinkbas Jun 24 '20 at 17:15
Worked for me on MacOS 10.15.3 – pkacprzak Aug 18 '20 at 20:55
You, sir, are a lifesaver! – mohit6up Oct 12 '20 at 16:34
You are just some kind of Jesus in programming. Thx!!!! It work on MacOS 11.1 – Claus Stolz Jan 20 '21 at 12:03
YOU DA MAN! (some more char to make our beloved SO happy) – Marcello Romani Feb 11 '21 at 16:27
this should be the top solution. – Jason F Feb 27 '21 at 05:09

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 15 '19 at 04:55

18

I had same problem and this appears to be a Mojave Issue, I was able to resolve with:

sudo installer -pkg /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Packages/macOS_SDK_headers_for_macOS_10.14.pkg -target /

answered Jun 15 '19 at 04:55

Farzad Farazmand

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Thanks @farzad-farazmand. Helped me to to install `pip install psycopg2==2.5.4` after running you above command on macOS 10.14.6. – Oleg Burov Oct 11 '19 at 22:38

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 30 '16 at 15:51

14

For Mac OS X users:

1. First check your postgresql path by running this command in terminal:

pg_config

If this fails lookup how to add pg_config to your path.

2. Next install Xcode Tools by running this command in terminal:

xcode-select --install

If you have both those sorted out now try to install psycopg2 again

answered Oct 30 '16 at 15:51

hahmed

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Both are fine but still got the problem – Logan Yang Jul 21 '19 at 04:38

snakecharmerb · Answer 6 · 2021-03-16T08:45:43.023

TDLR

If you aren't used to installing Python C-extensions, and psycopg2 isn't a core part of your work, try

pip install psycopg2-binary

Building Locally

psycopg2 is a C-extension, so it requires compilation when being installed by pip. The Build Prerequisites section of the docs explain what must be done to make installation via pip possible. In summary (for psycopg 2.8.5):

a C compiler must be installed on the machine
the Python header files must be installed
the libpq header files must be installed
the pg_config program must be installed (it usually comes with the libpq headers) and on $PATH.

With these prerequisites satisfied, pip install psycopg2 ought to succeed.

Installing pre-compiled wheels

Alternatively, pip can install pre-compiled binaries so that compilation (and the associated setup) is not required. They can be installed like this:

pip install psycopg2-binary

The docs note that

The psycopg2-binary package is meant for beginners to start playing with Python and PostgreSQL without the need to meet the build requirements.

but I would suggest that psycopg2-binary is often good enough for local development work if you are not using psycopg2 directly, but just as a dependency.

Concluding advice

Read the informative installation documentation, not only to overcome installation issues but also to understand the impact of using the pre-compiled binaries in some scenarios.

score 9 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 12 '20 at 09:16

9

For MacOS users, this question has the correct solution:

install command line tools if necessary:

xcode-select --install

then

env LDFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/openssl/include -L/usr/local/opt/openssl/lib" pip install psycopg2

answered Jun 12 '20 at 09:16

John

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score 7 · Answer 8 · answered May 01 '16 at 18:25

7

On OS X, I was able to solve this by simply upgrading wheel before installing psycopg2:

pip install --upgrade wheel

answered May 01 '16 at 18:25

Elmer Medez

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score 5 · Answer 9 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

5

For OSX Sierra users, it seems that an xcode update is the solution: Can't install psycopg2 package through pip install... Is this because of Sierra?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

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answered Nov 07 '16 at 18:52

Adam Starrh

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I tried close to 10 different things (including building postgres from source, linking the libs, etc. to my path, practically reimaging my machine) this was all it was! – henrycjc Jul 08 '17 at 07:53

score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 03 '20 at 15:50

4

I tried all the above solutions but they did not work for me. What I did was change the psycopg2 version in my requirements.txt file from psycopg2==2.7.4 to psycopg2==2.7.6

answered Feb 03 '20 at 15:50

codezero11

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Are you describing what you did but then failed? That would not answer this question and be more of a new question. Or is this an answer, as in "Everything described here failed, but the folowing works."? – Yunnosch Feb 03 '20 at 15:53
@Yunnosch, I think they are saying that the proposed solutions didn't work, so they posted what did work for them. That said, they basically have the same solution as Utsav Preet from July 7, 2019. – ChrisMM Feb 03 '20 at 16:23

Sniper_3B · Answer 11 · 2016-01-11T03:59:35.177

1

Is your error message complete? the most encountered reason for failing to install psycopg2 on mac from pip is pg_config is not in path. by the way, using macports or fink to install psycopg2 is more recommended way, so you don't have to worry about pg_config, libpq-dev and python-dev.

plus, are using Python 3.5? then upgrage your wheel to > 0.25.0 using pip.

edited Jan 11 '16 at 03:59

answered Jan 11 '16 at 03:18

Sniper_3B

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score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 07 '19 at 15:54

1

I faced the same issue, but the answers above didn't work for me. So this is what I did in my requirements.txt psycopg2-binary==2.7.6.1 and it worked fine

answered Jul 07 '19 at 15:54

Utsav Preet

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 09 '20 at 19:24

1

I had this issue on several packages, including psycopg2, numpy, and pandas. I simply removed the version from the requirements.txt file, and it worked.

So instead of psycopg2-binary==2.7.6.1 I just had psycopg2-binary.

answered Jun 09 '20 at 19:24

keirasan

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I had these packages in my project and have problem to active pipenv virtual environment after updating to python 3.8, all my attempts failed to activate pipenv virtual environment, but after removing version number after pandas, psycopg2 and psycopg2-binary in requirements.txt – m kiani Oct 13 '20 at 19:05

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Oct 20 '20 at 14:53

I know you are asking for development environment but if you are deploying on server say, Heroku. Just add below line in the requirements.txt of your project.

django-heroku==0.3.1

As this package itself will install the required packages like psycopg2 on server deployment.So let the server(heroku) should take care of it.

"Failed building wheel for psycopg2" - MacOSX using virtualenv and pip

14 Answers14

TDLR

Building Locally

Installing pre-compiled wheels

Concluding advice

Linked