How to install psycopg2 with "pip" on Python?

Question

I'm using virtualenv and I need to install "psycopg2".

I have done the following:

pip install http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/p/psycopg2/psycopg2-2.4.tar.gz#md5=24f4368e2cfdc1a2b03282ddda814160

And I have the following messages:

Downloading/unpacking http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/p/psycopg2/psycopg2
-2.4.tar.gz#md5=24f4368e2cfdc1a2b03282ddda814160
  Downloading psycopg2-2.4.tar.gz (607Kb): 607Kb downloaded
  Running setup.py egg_info for package from http://pypi.python.org/packages/sou
rce/p/psycopg2/psycopg2-2.4.tar.gz#md5=24f4368e2cfdc1a2b03282ddda814160
    Error: pg_config executable not found.

    Please add the directory containing pg_config to the PATH
    or specify the full executable path with the option:

        python setup.py build_ext --pg-config /path/to/pg_config build ...

    or with the pg_config option in 'setup.cfg'.
    Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
    running egg_info

creating pip-egg-info\psycopg2.egg-info

writing pip-egg-info\psycopg2.egg-info\PKG-INFO

writing top-level names to pip-egg-info\psycopg2.egg-info\top_level.txt

writing dependency_links to pip-egg-info\psycopg2.egg-info\dependency_links.txt

writing manifest file 'pip-egg-info\psycopg2.egg-info\SOURCES.txt'

warning: manifest_maker: standard file '-c' not found

Error: pg_config executable not found.



Please add the directory containing pg_config to the PATH

or specify the full executable path with the option:



    python setup.py build_ext --pg-config /path/to/pg_config build ...



or with the pg_config option in 'setup.cfg'.

----------------------------------------
Command python setup.py egg_info failed with error code 1
Storing complete log in C:\Documents and Settings\anlopes\Application Data\pip\p
ip.log

My question, I only need to do this to get the psycopg2 working?

python setup.py build_ext --pg-config /path/to/pg_config build ...

Fulgurating

Did it work when you tried python setup.py build_ext --pg-config /path/to/pg_config build ... ?? – Strenta

For python 3.4 or python 3.5, you have to install the corresponding verion's dev package like sudo apt install libpq-dev python3.4-dev or sudo apt install libpq-dev python3.5-dev – Sandpit

psycopg2 remove this and add psycopg2-binary to the dependencies file and re-try. – Stepdame

Answer 1

Note: Since a while back, there are binary wheels for Windows in PyPI, so this should no longer be an issue for Windows users. Below are solutions for Linux, Mac users, since lots of them find this post through web searches.

---

Option 1

Install the psycopg2-binary PyPI package instead, it has Python wheels for Linux and Mac OS.

pip install psycopg2-binary

---

Option 2

Install the prerequsisites for building the psycopg2 package from source:

Debian/Ubuntu

Python version	Command	Note
Default Python 3	sudo apt install libpq-dev python3-dev
Python 3.x	sudo apt install libpq-dev python3.x-dev	substitute x in command
Python 2	sudo apt install libpq-dev python-dev

If that's not enough, you might additionally need to install

sudo apt install build-essential

or

sudo apt install postgresql-server-dev-all

as well before installing psycopg2 again.

CentOS 6

See Banjer's answer

macOS

See nichochar's answer

Selfheal

11.04: different errors, the same solution. Worship to dev versions! – Loyal

@Loyal - The *-dev packages contain the files necessary to compile an application from source that uses the functions provided by the library (as psycopg2 uses the libpq and python libraries, among others). – Selfheal

I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and I also had to sudo apt-get install postgresql-server-dev-all – Footgear

how can i install libpq-dev python-dev packages in opensuse? – Ligule

Could someone please explain why not just the directory containing pg_config to the PATH (or use --pg-config)? – Strenta

Works for me on Ubuntu 12.10. – Menial

I found I only needed to install libpq-dev, which is fortunate, as python-dev wouldn't install. – Quicksand

I'm missing something. I'm using virtualenv as a convenience to perform local installs because I don't have root privileges on my deployment server. Does anyone know the actual answer to the original question, because I do know that my machine and the deployment server do have the needed dependencies, I just won't have permission to re-deploy. – Millwright

@DavidBerger if you have the libpq-dev and python-dev packages installed, your virtualenv's pip should install it just fine. – Selfheal

@Selfheal Not entirely true. At least, I have the python modules I need in my site-packages, although I'm unsure how they got there. But pip crashes with the above error. Of course, my destination environment also has the necessary dependencies, so virtualenv --system-site-packages allows me to do what I need without pip install, but I didn't originally want to go that route. – Millwright

As a note: this is an excellent example of why post-only answers should not be allowed. The link no longer works. – Hanna

If you are here because you are having trouble installing psycopg2 into the python 3 Celery container from Dockerhub you will also need to install build-essential with sudo apt-get install -y build-essential – Sessions

I had to do sudo apt-get install libpq-dev python3-dev as im using python3 – Walworth

On ubuntu 14.04.5 and python3 what worked for me was: sudo apt install libpq-dev python3-dev – Martella

@Tessaracter It's accepted because it's the correct answer. You can't install libpq-dev and python-dev with pip, you need to install both libpq-dev and python-dev before you run pip install psycopg2. – Selfheal

This is not working for python 3.8, python 3.7 worked well. – Rovit

@FawwazYusran You might have to install python3.8-dev or a similarly named package. – Selfheal

Works on ubuntu 20.04. Thank you! – Candida

So is Option 1 necessary and THEN Debian/Ubuntu step? or is that Debian/Ubuntu step a part of option 2? – Fame

@Fame Everything below "Option 2" are specifics about "Option 2", as indicated using both h1/h2/h3 and <hr> – Selfheal

Option #1 works on pypy as well. – Respire

If you are on Ubuntu 20.04 or above, do install sudo apt-get install build-essential – Kenn

On debian I didn't need the whole build-essential just a apt install gcc did the trick – Ferreous

sudo apt install postgresql-server-dev-all fixed in UBUNTU 22.04 – Cryptonymous

Answer 2

On CentOS, you need the postgres dev packages:

sudo yum install python-devel postgresql-devel

That was the solution on CentOS 6 at least.

Airedale

This isn't just CentOS, I think. psycopg has native dependencies, so to build from source (which is what pip does), the PostgreSQL development libraries need to be there. (The C headers, maybe? I don't know much about compiling native code.) – Livvi

I concur that this solves the problem on CentOS 6. I would like to add that I did have to add /usr/pgsql-9.3/bin to $PATH. Here is a post giving an example of how to do that. serverfault.com/questions/102932/… – Laureate

For CentOS 7 and Python 3.4 I had to install "python34-devel". My answer to a related question: https://mcmap.net/q/64540/-psycopg2-fails-to-install-on-python-3-with-pip-issuing-a-fatal-error – Indirection

Worked on AWS EC2, with RHEL-based 64bit Amazon Linux/2.5.1 – Tough

For Python3 in Fedora use sudo yum install python36-devel (replace 36 with your version of Python 3). – Hampton

Maybe worth mentioning that this installs the dependencies for psycopg2 and doesn't pip install it, so you actually have to pip install it after you install the dependencies. – Rajah

If you have built python from source, you have to rebuild it after installing system dependencies. – Prelude

Answer 3

If you're on a mac you can use homebrew

brew install postgresql

And all other options are here: http://www.postgresql.org/download/macosx/

Silverweed

nichochar's answer and attomos's answer (install postgresql and modify path) together resolved the issue for me. the easiest way to edit the path is to run "sudo nano /etc/path" from your terminal. – Donald

This does not install the postgresql in the virtualenv like the OP asked. – Mendelevium

I don't think OP necessarily wanted postgres in the virtualenv. He said he is using virtualenv. I think he misunderstood that postgresql is a bigger service than simply a python library. – Silverweed

Answer 4

On Mac Mavericks with Postgres.app version 9.3.2.0 RC2 I needed to use the following code after installing Postgres:

sudo PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.3/bin pip install psycopg2

Novotny

sudo PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres93.app/Contents/MacOS/bin pip install psycopg2 [as of April 5, 2014] – Crocodilian

Confirmed for Postgres.app 9.3.5 also :) – Millsaps

With Postgres.app 9.3.5 Mac OS X Version 10.9.4, I had to add export PATH=${PATH}:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.3/bin/ to the ~/.bash_profile and open a new window before psycopg2 installed. The path specified by @Crocodilian doesn't exist for me and I just installed Postgres.app on my computer today [September 11,2014]. – Dyne

if you are using virtualenv you dont need 'sudo' so active your virtualenv and run 'PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.3/bin pip install psycopg2' – Lorislorita

My case OS X Ver 10.9.4: sudo PATH=$PATH:/Library/PostgreSQL/9.2/bin pip install psycopg2 – Dartmouth

Yes, this worked for me too. After installing PostgreSQL, I had to set my path by doing PATH=$PATH:/Library/PostgreSQL/9.4/bin pip install psycopg2. – Mating

Use the latest version: PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/latest/bin pip install psycopg2 – Dona

Saved me ,For My Mac 10.13.3 ,python -v :2.7.10 pip -version :10.0.0 .The pip install psycopg2 was not working – Unchaste

sudo PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.3/bin python3 -m pip install psycopg2 this worked – Responsive

Answer 5

I recently configured psycopg2 on a windows machine. The easiest install is using a windows executable binary. You can find it at http://stickpeople.com/projects/python/win-psycopg/.

To install the native binary in a virtual envrionment, use easy_install:

C:\virtualenv\Scripts\> activate.bat
(virtualenv) C:\virtualenv\Scripts\> easy_install psycopg2-2.5.win32-py2.7-pg9.2.4-release.exe

Counterpressure

Thanks for the reply. But I need to install to an virtual environment. Best Regard, – Cementite

This trick (courtesy, Ned Batchelder) has helped me in the past to install from binaries to a virtualenv – Counterpressure

Is there really no way to get "pip install psycopg2" working on Windows? Even if a patch to psycopg2 is necessary, it would be worth it. – Indeterminate

I got this error when postgres was not installed on my machine - I installed postgres and the error went away ... – Maidenly

the stickpeople link also discusses virtual env and points to a pip install version github.com/nwcell/psycopg2-windows – Whist

I'm using a windows and inside a virtualenv and the easy_install psycopg2 worked like a charm. – Anabaptist

Thanks, easy_install worked. Only problem was that it added to "venv\Lib\site-packages\psycopg2-2.6.1-py3.4-win32.egg\" directory this psycopg2 module/directory. All i had to do was copy it to site-packages folder – Honeysweet

Only @Whist comment solved my problem, however that linked repo is abandoned. Checkout this link for an updated solution (psycopg2.6.2 + Win64 + env) – Spaniard

Answer 6

For Python 3 you should use sudo apt-get install libpq-dev python3-dev under Debian.

Fulgurating

If you are on Ubuntu 20.04 or above, do install sudo apt-get install build-essential – Kenn

For me python3 was referring to 3.10 but I was using 3.9 version, so I changed from python3-dev to python3.9-dev and it worked. – Younger

Answer 7

This is what worked for me (On RHEL, CentOS:

sudo yum install postgresql postgresql-devel python-devel

And now include the path to your postgresql binary dir with you pip install:

sudo PATH=$PATH:/usr/pgsql-9.3/bin/ pip install psycopg2

Make sure to include the correct path. Thats all :)

UPDATE: For python 3, please install python3-devel instead of python-devel

Refreshment

Note that I didn't need to update the PATH environment variable. – Gerdagerdeen

You shouldn't have to if you reload your terminal session. – Refreshment

Excelent Thank you so much . – Giliane

If you are using Python 3 you'll need to install numbered Python devel packages. See: https://mcmap.net/q/64540/-psycopg2-fails-to-install-on-python-3-with-pip-issuing-a-fatal-error – Indirection

Answer 8

The answers so far are too much like magic recipes. The error that you received tells you that pip cannot find a needed part of the PostgreSQL Query library. Possibly this is because you have it installed in a non-standard place for your OS which is why the message suggests using the --pg-config option.

But a more common reason is that you don't have libpq installed at all. This commonly happens on machines where you do NOT have PostgreSQL server installed because you only want to run client apps, not the server itself. Each OS/distro is different, for instance on Debian/Ubuntu you need to install libpq-dev. This allows you to compile and link code against the PostgreSQL Query library.

Most of the answers also suggest installing a Python dev library. Be careful. If you are only using the default Python installed by your distro, that will work, but if you have a newer version, it could cause problems. If you have built Python on this machine then you already have the dev libraries needed for compiling C/C++ libraries to interface with Python. As long as you are using the correct pip version, the one installed in the same bin folder as the python binary, then you are all set. No need to install the old version.

Lamprey

And about Os x? I mean, is based on Unix but I think can be different. – School

Answer 9

If you using Mac OS, you should install PostgreSQL from source. After installation is finished, you need to add this path using:

export PATH=/local/pgsql/bin:$PATH

or you can append the path like this:

export PATH=.../:usr/local/pgsql/bin

in your .profile file or .zshrc file.

This maybe vary by operating system.

You can follow the installation process from http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/04/linux-postgresql-install-and-configure-from-source/

Proudlove

Why from source instead of Homebrew? – Fossilize

@Fossilize it was answered in 2012 and I believe I did try to install it with Homebrew at that time but it failed. Now, I've installed PostgreSQL using Homebrew without any problems. – Proudlove

Answer 10

Run below commands and you should be fine

$ apt-get update
$ apt install python3-dev libpq-dev
$ pip3 install psycopg2

Kindig

If you are on Ubuntu 20.04 or above, do install sudo apt-get install build-essential – Kenn

Answer 11

On Debian/Ubuntu:

First install and build dependencies of psycopg2 package:

# apt-get build-dep python-psycopg2

Then in your virtual environment, compile and install psycopg2 module:

(env)$ pip install psycopg2

Allometry

Answer 12

Before you can install psycopg2 you will need to install the python-dev package.

If you're working from Linux (and possibly other systems but i can't speak from experience) you will need to make sure to be quite exact about what version of python your running when installing the dev package.

For example when I used the command:

sudo apt-get install python3-dev

I still ran into the same error when trying to

pip install psycopg2

As I am using python 3.7 I needed to use the command

sudo apt-get install python3.7-dev

Once I did this I ran into no more issues. Obviously if your on python version 3.5 you would change that 7 to a 5.

Uncinate

This should be the answer, sudo apt-get install python-x.x-dev fixed the issue. – Saundrasaunter

If you are on Ubuntu 20.04 or above, do install sudo apt-get install build-essential – Kenn

Answer 13

I've done this before where in windows you install first into your base python installation.

Then, you manually copy the installed psycopg2 to the virtualenv install.

It's not pretty, but it works.

Fabaceous

can you elaborate please. Where do you get the psycopg2 at the first place? – Photogene

windows binaries are available at stickpeople.com/projects/python/win-psycopg – Fabaceous

I did this as well, after exhausting days and all other options that have been described online. I'm still dumbfounded as to what was preventing it from being installed with pip in venv. I was able to install outside of the virtual environment, no problem. I then literally copied that file from my Python package library directory and pasted within the same within the venv. My hunch is that, becuase my version(s) of Python are Anaconda distributions, that there was something amiss with the path that was being assumed/used. – Lianne

Answer 14

Besides installing the required packages, I also needed to manually add PostgreSQL bin directory to PATH.
$vi ~/.bash_profile
Add PATH=/usr/pgsql-9.2/bin:$PATH before export PATH.
$source ~/.bash_profile
$pip install psycopg2

Allegorist

Any idea why this doesn't end up in the default path? – Nitwit

I got a error like that how to rectify thisplease help me!!! Command "/usr/bin/python -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='/private/tmp/pip-build-AUbwwG/psycopg2/setup.py';exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(file).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), file, 'exec'))" install --record /tmp/pip-44Va05-record/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile" failed with error code 1 in /private/tmp/pip-build-AUbwwG/psycopg2 – Dietary

Answer 15

Psycopg2 Depends on Postgres Libraries. On Ubuntu You can use:

apt-get install libpq-dev

Then:

pip install psycopg2

Unpeg

It's not a good practice to mix pip packages and apt-get packages. – Moonraker

Answer 16

For MacOS,

Use the below command to install psycopg2, works like charm!!!

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

Offish

Answer 17

On windows XP you get this error if postgres is not installed ...

Maidenly

are you sure that is right? I installed postgres on my windows machine and I still get that. ? – Photogene

Why don't they have that on their site as pre-req to have postgres? – Photogene

Answer 18

I installed Postgresql92 using the RedHat / CentOS repository on PG's downloads site http://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/redhat/

To get pg_config, I had to add /usr/pgsql-9.2/bin to PATH.

Alternate

Answer 19

On Fedora 24: For Python 3.x

sudo dnf install postgresql-devel python3-devel

sudo dnf install redhat-rpm-config

Activate your Virtual Environment:

pip install psycopg2

Affectionate

Answer 20

I've been battling with this for days, and have finally figured out how to get the "pip install psycopg2" command to run in a virtualenv in Windows (running Cygwin).

I was hitting the "pg_config executable not found." error, but I had already downloaded and installed postgres in Windows. It installed in Cygwin as well; running "which pg_config" in Cygwin gave "/usr/bin/pg_config", and running "pg_config" gave sane output -- however the version installed with Cygwin is:

VERSION = PostgreSQL 8.2.11

This won't work with the current version of psycopg2, which appears to require at least 9.1. When I added "c:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.2\bin" to my Windows path, the Cygwin pip installer was able to find the correct version of PostgreSQL, and I was able to successfully install the module using pip. (This is probably preferable to using the Cygwin version of PostgreSQL anyway, as the native version will run much quicker).

Enclasp

Answer 21

On OpenSUSE 13.2, this fixed it:

sudo zypper in postgresql-devel 

Byyourleave

Answer 22

FOR FEDORA USERS:

libpq-dev is one of the dependencies, however, this is how the package should be named in the installation: libpq-devel

So this should solve the problem for Fedora:

sudo yum install libpq-devel

Eyestalk

Answer 23

For lowly Windows users were stuck having to install psycopg2 from the link below, just install it to whatever Python installation you have setup. It will place the folder named "psycopg2" in the site-packages folder of your python installation.

After that, just copy that folder to the site-packages directory of your virtualenv and you will have no problems.

here is the link you can find the executable to install psycopg2

http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/

Erlin

i tried this and i get psycopg2-2.6-cp34-none-win_amd64.whl is not a supported wheel on this platform. – Balbinder

Answer 24

On Ubuntu I just needed the postgres dev package:

sudo apt-get install postgresql-server-dev-all

*Tested in a virtualenv

Invert

Answer 25

I could install it in a windows machine and using Anaconda/Spyder with python 2.7 through the following commands:

 !pip install psycopg2

Then to establish the connection to the database:

 import psycopg2
 conn = psycopg2.connect(dbname='dbname',host='host_name',port='port_number', user='user_name', password='password')

Studhorse

I got this working with database listed in psql -l, host localhost, default database port 5432, user listed with \du once you get into psql and guessing the password. – Ani

Answer 26

In Arch base distributions:

sudo pacman -S python-psycopg2
pip2 install psycopg2  # Use pip or pip3 to python3

Pelham

Answer 27

On OSX 10.11.6 (El Capitan)

brew install postgresql
PATH=$PATH:/Library/PostgreSQL/9.4/bin pip install psycopg2

Intradermal

On OSX 10.12.3 (Sierra): brew install postgresql PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.6.2/bin/ pip install psycopg2 – Untoward

On OS X 10.14, this tuned out to be very challenging. See detailed solution here: https://mcmap.net/q/64541/-linking-not-working-in-homebrew-39-s-cmake-since-mojave – Dandle

Answer 28

On OSX with macports:

sudo port install postgresql96
export PATH=/opt/local/lib/postgresql96/bin:$PATH

Burl

Answer 29

if pip is not working than you can download .whl file from here https://pypi.python.org/pypi/psycopg2 extract it.. than python setup.py install

Towrope

Answer 30

I was having this problem, the main reason was with 2 equal versions installed. One by postgres.app and one by HomeBrew.

If you choose to keep only the APP:

brew unlink postgresql
pip3 install psycopg2

Niobic

Answer 31

Installation on MacOS

Following are the steps, which worked for me and my team members while installing psycopg2 on Mac OS Big Sur and which we have extensively tested for Big Sur. Before starting make sure you have the Xcode command-line tool installed. If not, then install it from the Apple Developer site. The below steps assume you have homebrew installed. If you have not installed homebrew then install it. Last but not the least, it also assumes you already have PostgreSQL installed in your system, if not then install it. Different people have different preferences but the default installation method on the official PostgreSQL site via Enterprise DB installer is the best method for the majority of people.

• Put up the linkage to pg_config file in your .zshrc file by:
  export PATH="$PATH:/Library/PostgreSQL/12/bin:$PATH". This way you are having linkage with the pg_config file in the /Library/PostgreSQL/12/bin folder. So if your PostgreSQL installation is via other means, like Postgres.app or Postgres installation via homebrew, then you need to have in your .zshrc file the link to pg_config file from the bin folder of that PostgreSQL installation as psycopg2 relies on that.

• Install OpenSSL via Homebrew using the command brew install openssl. The reason for this is that libpq, the library which is the basis of psycopg2, uses openssl - psycopg2 doesn't use it directly. After installing put the following commands in your .zshrc file:

  • export PATH="/usr/local/opt/[email protected]/bin:$PATH"
  • export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/[email protected]/lib"
  • export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/[email protected]/include"
    By doing this you are creating necessary linkages in your directory. These commands are suggested by brew while you install openssl and have been directly picked up from there.

• Now comes the most important step, which is to install libpq using the command brew install libpq. This installs libpq library. As per the documentation

libpq is the C application programmer's interface to PostgreSQL. libpq is a set of library functions that allow client programs to pass queries to the PostgreSQL backend server and to receive the results of these queries.

• Link libpq using brew link libpq, if this doesn't work then use the command: brew link libpq --force.
• Also put in your .zshrc file the following
  export PATH="/usr/local/opt/libpq/bin:$PATH". This creates all the necessary linkages for libpq library .
• Now restart the terminal or use the following command source ~/.zshrc.
  
  This works even when you are working in conda environment.
  
  N.B. pip install psycopg2-binaryshould be avoided because as per the developers of the psycopg2 library

The use of the -binary packages in production is discouraged because in the past they proved unreliable in multithread environments. This might have been fixed in more recent versions but I have never managed to reproduce the failure.

Amory

Answer 32

On Debian Bookworm with python3 the command that worked for me was,

sudo apt-get install python3-psycopg2

According to the comments during the install, it makes psycopg2 available across the entire machine.

Hoenack

Answer 33

On macOS Mojave make sure you on newest update with Command Line Tools 10.3 - that worked for me - updated it with Software Update, previous version of Command Line Tools on Mojave did not work for me.

Safko

Answer 34

Make sure Postgres is installed and PATH is updated before running pip install psycopg2

export PATH="$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/12/bin"

Aurora

Answer 35

Every time I run into this problem this seems to work for me.

pip install psycopg2==2.7.5

Crumple

Answer 36

I had this error only with Python2. Immediately I upgraded my virtual environment to Python3.8, the error was no more.

Prohibition

Answer 37

On windows this is how it works
On the command prompt after installing flask via pip in virtual environment, run this command

>pip install psycopg2

Check this

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