"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!

Boylston

My answer was found here: #26288542 – Ore

This solution worked for wheel, venv & pip - https://mcmap.net/q/53437/-why-is-python-setup-py-saying-invalid-command-39-bdist_wheel-39-on-travis-ci – Bayles

running sudo apt-get install libpq-dev and pip install psycopg2-binary worked for me, also after that i could run pipenv install psycopg2 – Labuan

Answer 1

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

Unpen

Worked for me after ld: library not found for -lssl – Rickrack

tried all above answers, after that I applied this answer. worked on Big Sur 11.2.3 thanks a lot 🙏 Note: it worked after I ran pip3 install -r requirements.txt – Vinyl

For macOS on Apple Silicon, use export LIBRARY_PATH=$LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/homebrew/opt/openssl/lib instead. – Innumerable

I faced same problem specially in mac OS.X, yes, it's actually a SSL problem. Fixed after exporting the ssl. – Duiker

Answer 2

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 Anyway, I fixed this by finding the outdated packages and updating then.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pip list --outdated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

Orator

Worked like a charm for me on OS X, thanks! (OS X 10.11.2, Python 3.5.1, pip 7.1.2) – Cacka

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. – Nauseate

Worked like a charm on Ubuntu 18.04 – Tactful

Worked on Ubuntu 20.4 – Sailing

Answer 3

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

I used following command.

pip install psycopg2-binary==2.8.3

Welter

For python 3.8 use pip install psycopg2-binary – Sruti

Answer 4

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.

Led

Answer 5

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 /

Collapse

Thanks @farzad-farazmand. Helped me to to install pip install psycopg2==2.5.4 after running you above command on macOS 10.14.6. – Congo

Answer 6

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

Knop

Answer 7

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

Mcgary

Both are fine but still got the problem – Bespeak

Answer 8

I was also facing the same after running all the above commands, but the following two commands worked for me:

1. Instead of pip, use this:

sudo apt-get install libpq-dev

2. then run this command:

pip install psycopg2

Cricoid

apt recommends postgresql-doc-12 instead of libpq-dev now. psycopg2 installs successfully with either of these installed. – Edmee

Answer 9

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

pip install --upgrade wheel

Emrich

Answer 10

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?

Salutation

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! – Kathleenkathlene

Answer 11

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

Pantaloon

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."? – Hyperdulia

@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. – Bart

Answer 12

Fixed by installing python3.7-dev: sudo apt install python3.7-dev, based on the link.

• Python: 3.7
• Ubuntu: 20.04.3 LTS

Sherillsherilyn

Thanks to this I realised I had to use python3.12-dev. – Wot

Answer 13

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.

Clayton

Answer 14

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

Ugo

Answer 15

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.

Petrolic

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 – Ilailaire

Answer 16

sudo apt install libpq-dev python3.X-dev 

where X is the sub version,

these should be followed by :

  pip install --upgrade wheel
  pip install --upgrade setuptools
  pip install psycopg2

Enjoy !!!

Metathesis

This was it! The python3.X-dev was the one thing that got it working for me on Linux Mint! I was so frustrated! Thanks! – Homeland

Answer 17

I though the LIBRARY_PATH would work but unfortunately it didn't.

Using Homebrew on MacOS Silicon, the following workaround did the trick for me:

LDFLAGS=-L/opt/homebrew/opt/openssl/lib CPPFLAGS=-I/opt/homebrew/opt/openssl/include pip install -r requirements.txt # or pip install psycopg2-binary

Wren

Answer 18

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.

Rahel

Answer 19

I solved my problem by updating/installing vs_BuildTools. The link to the software was given in the error itself. Error Image

Abbess

Please post the error logs as text, instead of posting the link to picture. – Tamworth

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Finesse

Answer 20

On windows I've managed to solve this by adding C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\15\lib to LIB env variable

Cur