How to use MinGW's gcc compiler when installing Python package using Pip?

Question

I configured MinGW and distutils so now I can compile extensions using this command:

setup.py install

MinGW's gcc compiler will be used and package will be installed. For that I installed MinGW and created distutils.cfg file with following content:

[build]
compiler = mingw32

It's cool but now I'd like to use all pip benefits. Is there a way to use the same MinGW's gcc compiler in pip? So that when I run this:

pip install <package name>

pip will use MinGW's gcc compiler and compile C code if needed?

Currently I get this error: Unable to find vcvarsall.bat. Seems pip doesn't know that I have gcc compiler. How can I configure pip to use gcc compiler?

Childlike

Another tip: make sure that the file is called distutils.cfg and not distutils.cfg.txt. Sometimes Windows likes to add the .txt extension when you make a new text file. – Colossians

Answer 1

• install MinGW with C++ Compiler option checked
• add C:\MinGW\bin to your PATH
• in PYTHONPATH\Lib\distutils, create a file distutils.cfg and add these lines:

[build]
compiler=mingw32

Intestate

The distutils.cfg file creation is what solved this for me - I was trying to install a package with pip and got the dreaded "Unable to find vcvarsall.bat" error. Thanks. – Flattish

Remember that you should change this for the python in your virtualenv if you use one. – Amputee

Thanks. Still tedious. If only Pip had a --compiler option github.com/pypa/pip/issues/18 please weigh in – Molly

Just a note, if you are using virtualenv, you have a separate distutils.cfg to change -- this was my problem! – Kissiah

I have windows 8.1 on a 64 bit computer. After attempting the above I received the error : error: You should not use mingw32 for gcc >= 4.6.0. Use mingw64 instead, e.g.:python setup.py build_ext -c mingw64 I altered the [build] entry in the distutils.cfg file to read compiler=mingw32 and had success. – Niche

Answer 2

Even though configuration file solves this problem, it's not always an option. I had the same issue for my command line installation process and I was not able to change config files on all the machines and python distributions.

This is my solution:

For mingw32 and packages, which use VC++ as default:

pip install --global-option build_ext --global-option --compiler=mingw32 <package_zip>

For Visual C++ on WinPython, which uses mingw32 as default:

pip install --global-option build_ext --global-option --compiler=msvc <package_zip>

Viable

Where can we get the <package_zip> ? Is it the whl file? – Adytum

<package_zip> is a zipped pip package with sources inside, which require compilation. You can download many from pypi.org – Viable