What is the meaning of "Failed building wheel for X" in pip install?

A

20

264

This is a truly popular question here at SO, but none of the many answers I have looked at, clearly explain what this error really mean, and why it occurs.

One source of confusion, is that when (for example) you do pip install pycparser, you first get the error:

Failed building wheel for pycparser

which is then followed by the message that the package was:

Successfully installed pycparser-2.19.

# pip3 install pycparser

Collecting pycparser
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/68/9e/49196946aee219aead1290e00d1e7fdeab8567783e83e1b9ab5585e6206a/pycparser-2.19.tar.gz
Building wheels for collected packages: pycparser
  Running setup.py bdist_wheel for pycparser ... error
  Complete output from command /usr/bin/python3 -u -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='/tmp/pip-install-g_v28hpp/pycparser/setup.py';f=getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('\r\n', '\n');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, 'exec'))" bdist_wheel -d /tmp/pip-wheel-__w_f6p0 --python-tag cp36:
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
    ...
    File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2349, in resolve
      module = __import__(self.module_name, fromlist=['__name__'], level=0)
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'wheel.bdist_wheel'

  ----------------------------------------
  Failed building wheel for pycparser
  Running setup.py clean for pycparser
Failed to build pycparser
Installing collected packages: pycparser
  Running setup.py install for pycparser ... done
Successfully installed pycparser-2.19

What is going on here?

(I would like to understand how something can fail but still get installed and whether you can trust this package functioning correctly?)

So far the best partial explanation I have found is this.

Autoroute answered 8/11, 2018 at 9:33 Comment(10)

When pip doesn't find a wheel for the requirement, it downloads the source dist and tries to build a wheel from it locally. on success, the wheel is stored in pip's cache for future reinstalls. on wheel build failure, pip switches to the legacy installation from source dist (invoking python setup.py install). – Titleholder 8/11, 2018 at 9:49

In your case, you're missing the wheel package so pip is unable to build wheels from source dists. if you want to explicitly disable building wheels, use the --no-binary flag: pip install somepkg --no-binary=somepkg. Or use pip install somepkg --no-binary=:all:, but beware that this will disable wheels for every package selected for installation, including dependencies; if there is no source dist available for some package pip needs to install, the installation will fail. – Titleholder 8/11, 2018 at 9:54

@hoefling: your first comment was the true reason and could be an answer. The second one is wrong: --no-binary instructs pip to only download and use source distributions. The flag to prevent it to build a local binary wheel is indeed --no-cache-dir. – Callean 8/11, 2018 at 11:3

@Titleholder I have wheels (0.32.2) so that is not the problem. But maybe the pycparser package doesn't have a wheel (*.whl) associated? But how can I check this a-priori? – Autoroute 8/11, 2018 at 11:18

You can consult the PyPI site at pypi.org/project/pycparser and then asks for the files. You can then see that only a .tar.gz file is there and it is the source distribution on PyPI (a wheel would have a .whl extension) – Callean 8/11, 2018 at 12:23

@SergeBallesta Example: pip install docopt --no-binary=docopt, the output clearly states: Skipping bdist_wheel for docopt, due to binaries being disabled for it. When turning the verbose mode on, it's clear that the installation is done via setup.py install. the relevant spot in pip's sources. – Titleholder 8/11, 2018 at 12:36

@SergeBallesta however, i didn't expect --no-cache-dir to implicitly disable wheel building; kinda suprprising to learn that. Always thought --no-cache-dir only ignores the local cache dir (for both reading and writing), so one can use that for rebuilding the local wheel instead of taking the cached one. Learned something new today! – Titleholder 8/11, 2018 at 12:41

I found a solution by looking carefully at the error messages and it was written python-src/curve25519/curve25519module.c:3:10: fatal error: Python.h: No such file or directory. In my case the problem was fixed by installing python-dev: #54687040 – Outlawry 29/6, 2021 at 16:4

Where are the logs located, typically? – Heydon 17/9, 2021 at 18:47

@Edmondo1984 AFAIK, there are no default installation logs for python, unless you add one yourself in a default pip.ini (win) or pip.conf, or use something like python setup.py install >& pip.log. – Autoroute 18/9, 2021 at 16:17

A

60

Since, nobody seem to mention this apart myself. My own solution to the above problem is most often to make sure to disable the cached copy by using: pip install <package> --no-cache-dir.

Autoroute answered 9/7, 2019 at 16:16 Comment(7)

If just getting rid of the message is your goal, this may count as a fix, otherwise I'd call this a workaround. – Anodize 22/7, 2019 at 13:36

@NilsMagnus This is not just getting rid of the message, it is allowing the install to proceed even when the installer thinks that it has already been updated, due to the cache directory containing residue from previous and often failed updates. – Autoroute 23/7, 2019 at 19:19

^^ That said, I keep on wondering why this is not the default behavior? Who want to keep cached copies when you're updating? Just doesn't make any sense. – Autoroute 23/7, 2019 at 19:21

Because bandwidth on PyPI isn't "free" and caching built wheels allows for much faster installs later. – Matisse 28/8, 2019 at 15:20

How is that the accepted answer to the question? It does not answer the question. – Infection 15/1, 2020 at 12:41

Because he himself asked it and answered it as well. I think this way he can accept his own answer I believe. Sounds weird but that might be the case. – Cogitative 2/4, 2020 at 9:37

@Infection Because that error (used to) pop up, also under other different circumstances. Then I found an answer that worked for me and naturally accepted that one. As you can see there are many different solutions that worked for other people, but not for me. Perhaps not a fool-proof way to accepted answers, but that's just the flexibility we have to live with... – Autoroute 2/4, 2020 at 17:51

M

223

(pip maintainer here!)

Update: This is no longer necessary starting Python 3.12, where pip will automatically use isolated builds in new virtual environments.

For a quick copy paste:

pip install wheel

Do that in every new virtual environment created with venv.

Read on for the details and explaination.

If the package is not a wheel, pip tries to build a wheel for it (via setup.py bdist_wheel). If that fails for any reason (like, missing system level libraries, incompatibilities with your system, bad version string in the built wheel, etc), you get the "Failed building wheel for {...}" message.

In some of these cases, currently, pip falls back to installing via setup.py install, so it's possible that the installation still succeeds. That said, pip always tries to install packages via wheels as often as it can. This is because of various advantages of using wheels (like faster installs, cache-able, not executing code again etc) and the fact that it is a standardizd format; unlike the (deprecated) setup.py install interface.

Your error message here is due to the wheel package being missing, which contains the logic required to build the wheels in setup.py bdist_wheel. (pip install wheel can fix that -- but it won't fix any build time issues due to system configuration)

Sometime in the future, we'll switch to a more modern build system by default (if you're a package author, you can opt-in by adding a pyproject.toml) that will solve this issue, through isolated build environments where you will have wheel installed. :)

PEP 517: A build-system independent format for source trees
A blog post on "PEP 517 and 518 in Plain English"

Matisse answered 8/6, 2019 at 7:4 Comment(6)

At the time of writing OP, I already had the wheel package installed. Also please add a link to PEP517. – Autoroute 8/6, 2019 at 15:17

Did you have an older version of setuptools or wheel installed? If not, that seems like the reason for the failure there. Anyway, from pip's POV, it failed to build the wheel and thus it installs normally. – Matisse 28/8, 2019 at 15:2

Is there a way to skip wheel generation (setup.py bdist_wheel) and just do the installation (setup.py install)? – Passacaglia 6/11, 2020 at 3:11

Also make sure that the wheel package is installed in the virtual environment that you are operating in (not just the machine). – Nauru 5/3, 2021 at 22:37

@Passacaglia None that aren't already deprecated. – Matisse 30/4, 2021 at 20:58

We're now well into 2022 and this is still an issue. pip install wheel did "stuff" but on trying finish my original installs related to creating a Python virtual environment, they still fail. I had to persevere with a Windows-based setup. What an absolute waste of time. – Miss 5/4, 2022 at 8:0

M

73

Yesterday, I got the same error: Failed building wheel for hddfancontrol when I ran pip3 install hddfancontrol. The result was Failed to build hddfancontrol. The cause was error: invalid command 'bdist_wheel' and Running setup.py bdist_wheel for hddfancontrol ... error. The error was fixed by running the following:

 pip3 install wheel

(From here.)

Alternatively, the "wheel" can be downloaded directly from here. When downloaded, it can be installed by running the following:

pip3 install "/the/file_path/to/wheel-0.32.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl"

Middy answered 1/2, 2019 at 7:10 Comment(4)

pip3 install wheel worked great, for even inside 'python3 -m venv', as of today I am new to venv – Verina 4/1, 2020 at 15:44

even after installing wheel its not working for me ! – Sirajuddaula 11/9, 2020 at 7:51

This actually solved the case where python --version throws an error, but python3 --version works. Thanks! – Thankyou 22/9, 2021 at 11:12

Adding wheel package to your setup_requires option will solve the problem for you, ``` [options] setup_requires = wheel >= 0.37.1 setuptools >= 44.0.0 ``` – Muna 8/4, 2022 at 17:58

A

60

Since, nobody seem to mention this apart myself. My own solution to the above problem is most often to make sure to disable the cached copy by using: pip install <package> --no-cache-dir.

Autoroute answered 9/7, 2019 at 16:16 Comment(7)

If just getting rid of the message is your goal, this may count as a fix, otherwise I'd call this a workaround. – Anodize 22/7, 2019 at 13:36

@NilsMagnus This is not just getting rid of the message, it is allowing the install to proceed even when the installer thinks that it has already been updated, due to the cache directory containing residue from previous and often failed updates. – Autoroute 23/7, 2019 at 19:19

^^ That said, I keep on wondering why this is not the default behavior? Who want to keep cached copies when you're updating? Just doesn't make any sense. – Autoroute 23/7, 2019 at 19:21

Because bandwidth on PyPI isn't "free" and caching built wheels allows for much faster installs later. – Matisse 28/8, 2019 at 15:20

How is that the accepted answer to the question? It does not answer the question. – Infection 15/1, 2020 at 12:41

Because he himself asked it and answered it as well. I think this way he can accept his own answer I believe. Sounds weird but that might be the case. – Cogitative 2/4, 2020 at 9:37

@Infection Because that error (used to) pop up, also under other different circumstances. Then I found an answer that worked for me and naturally accepted that one. As you can see there are many different solutions that worked for other people, but not for me. Perhaps not a fool-proof way to accepted answers, but that's just the flexibility we have to live with... – Autoroute 2/4, 2020 at 17:51

E

14

In my case, update the pip versión after create the venv, this update pip from 9.0.1 to 20.3.1

python3 -m venv env/python
source env/python/bin/activate
pip3 install pip --upgrade

But, the message was...

Using legacy 'setup.py install' for django-avatar, since package 'wheel' is not installed.

Then, I install wheel package after update pip

python3 -m venv env/python
source env/python/bin/activate
pip3 install --upgrade pip
pip3 install wheel

And the message was...

Building wheel for django-avatar (setup.py): started
default:   Building wheel for django-avatar (setup.py): finished with status 'done'

El answered 3/12, 2020 at 18:31 Comment(0)

S

6

It might be helpful to address this question from a package deployment perspective.

There are many tutorials out there that explain how to publish a package to PyPi. Below are a couple I have used;

medium
real python

My experience is that most of these tutorials only have you use the .tar of the source, not a wheel. Thus, when installing packages created using these tutorials, I've received the "Failed to build wheel" error.

I later found the link on PyPi to the Python Software Foundation's docs PSF Docs. I discovered that their setup and build process is slightly different, and does indeed included building a wheel file.

After using the officially documented method, I no longer received the error when installing my packages.

So, the error might simply be a matter of how the developer packaged and deployed the project. None of us were born knowing how to use PyPi, and if they happened upon the wrong tutorial -- well, you can fill in the blanks.

I'm sure that is not the only reason for the error, but I'm willing to bet that is a major reason for it.

Showpiece answered 7/6, 2019 at 22:40 Comment(0)

S

4

This error mostly comes up when you do not have the required packages needed by wheel. If you are using python3, then install python3-dev or python2-dev if you are using python 2.

sudo apt-get install python3-dev

or

sudo apt-get install python2-dev

Sidra answered 19/3, 2021 at 11:25 Comment(2)

Sooner or later we would end up executing this command so better to have this executed first. Correct answer by far as there could be multiple dependencies required and this would take care of the essential. – Chockablock 26/10, 2022 at 17:34

This answer saved me, I was trying to install PandasGUI on WSL and kept getting the error "Can't build wheel for evdev", and no answers on the internet worked, but yours did! – Indaba 25/4, 2023 at 12:50

D

3

Error :

System : aws ec2 instance (t2 small)

issue : while installing opencv python via

pip3 install opencv-python

  Problem with the CMake installation, aborting build. CMake executable is cmake
  
  ----------------------------------------
  Failed building wheel for opencv-python
  Running setup.py clean for opencv-python

What worked for me

pip3 install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel

After this you still might received fallowing error error

    from .cv2 import *
ImportError: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Installing libgl solved the error for me.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libgl1-mesa-glx

Hope this helps

Destruction answered 28/10, 2020 at 6:1 Comment(1)

pip3 install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel solved it for me too – Rodina 18/12, 2020 at 19:37

C

2

Try this:

sudo apt-get install libpcap-dev libpq-dev

It has worked for me when I have installed these two.

See the link here for more information

Corry answered 25/3, 2020 at 10:19 Comment(0)

E

2

On Ubuntu 18.04, I ran into this issue because the apt package for wheel does not include the wheel command. I think pip tries to import the wheel python package, and if that succeeds assumes that the wheel command is also available. Ubuntu breaks that assumption.

The apt python3 code package is named python3-wheel. This is installed automatically because python3-pip recommends it.

The apt python3 wheel command package is named python-wheel-common. Installing this too fixes the "failed building wheel" errors for me.

Exchequer answered 9/4, 2020 at 10:58 Comment(1)

bug report – Exchequer 9/4, 2020 at 10:59

M

1

I got the same message when I tried to install

pip install django-imagekit.

So I ran

pip install wheel

(I had python 2.7) and then I reran pip install django-imagekit and it worked.

Mattland answered 10/4, 2020 at 21:1 Comment(0)

I

1

I stuck with this problem for several hours when I was trying to install a package that requires 'isal', but isal installation failed:

  ----------------------------------------
  ERROR: Failed building wheel for isal
Failed to build isal
ERROR: Could not build wheels for isal which use PEP 517 and cannot be installed directly

The solution that works for me is installing libtool.

yum install libtool

Indraft answered 30/8, 2021 at 15:44 Comment(0)

M

1

In my case, running the following solved the issue:

pip install "cython<3.0.0" wheel && pip install pyyaml==5.4.1 --no-build-isolation

Minoan answered 6/2 at 22:41 Comment(0)

N

0

I had the same problem while installing Brotli

ERROR

Failed building wheel for Brotli

I solved it by downloading the .whl file from here and installing it using the below command

C:\Users\{user_name}\Downloads>pip install Brotli-1.0.9-cp39-cp39-win_amd64.whl

Nosography answered 31/10, 2020 at 21:2 Comment(0)

E

0

I was getting the wheels error when installing datacompy, which uses pandas, in VS Code. This solved it for me:

pip install datacompy --no-deps --ignore-installed

Easterner answered 8/12, 2023 at 0:41 Comment(0)

A

-1

I would like to add that if you only have Python3 on your system then you need to start using pip3 instead of pip.

You can install pip3 using the following command;

sudo apt install python3-pip -y

After this you can try to install the package you need with;

sudo pip3 install <package>

Anodic answered 8/10, 2020 at 17:18 Comment(1)

Preferably, you use python3 -m pip, not pip3, but neither solution address the error in the question – Mestee 24/8, 2021 at 19:24

C

-1

I've had an issue as well while installing "pyblake2" package. Working on MacOS M2! Error text (approx text): "Couldn't build wheel for pyblake2..." However "wheel" module was successfully installed!

Solution:

download package from the official source: https://pypi.org/project/pyblake2/#modal-close
run the "setup.py" by running: ~python3 setup.py
if it throws the errors:

a) pyblake2module.c:699:27: error: expression is not assignable Py_TYPE(&blake2bType) = &PyType_Type;
b) pyblake2module.c:703:27: error: expression is not assignable Py_TYPE(&blake2sType) = &PyType_Type;

Replace the lines:

a) Py_TYPE(&blake2bType) = &PyType_Type; -> blake2bType.tp_base = &PyType_Type;
b) Py_TYPE(&blake2sType) = &PyType_Type; -> blake2sType.tp_base = &PyType_Type;

Repeat step #2 again.

You are welcome!

Cabbala answered 28/6, 2023 at 10:18 Comment(0)

B

-1

In short, it means that the package in the requirements.txt is set to a relatively "deprecated" version, and the underlying implementation of your current Python environment cannot interpret the wheel source code, or intentionally produces errors.

One way of dealing with this is to replace "==" in the requirements.txt with ">=". This way, you can iteratively bump versions of only the packages that require "wheel" builds.

Biscay answered 6/12, 2023 at 18:23 Comment(0)

D

-3

I was trying to install python-nmap tool, and getting this error.

If you are on Linux platform, please make sure that the nmap tool is installed, otherwise the library python-nmap won't work.

On Red Hat based distribution, please install nmap CLI as follow:

sudo yum install namp

Dicks answered 9/7, 2021 at 18:4 Comment(0)

A

-3

for mac-os run below command in terminal

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Antoninaantonino answered 21/8, 2023 at 7:15 Comment(0)

L

-4

This may Help you ! ....

Uninstalling pycparser:

pip uninstall pycparser

Reinstall pycparser:

pip install pycparser

I got same error while installing termcolor and I fixed it by reinstalling it .

Larceny answered 3/5, 2020 at 21:59 Comment(0)

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