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Pyenv Wiki Common Build Problems when it was useful
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pyenv-common-build-problems-useful.md

Prerequisites

Make sure to follow this guidance for your platform before any troubleshooting.

  • Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev \
libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget curl llvm libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev \
xz-utils tk-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev python3-openssl git cmake

Alternative of libreadline-dev:

sudo apt install libedit-dev
  • CentOS/RHEL(aws ec2):
sudo yum install @development zlib-devel bzip2 bzip2-devel readline-devel sqlite \
sqlite-devel openssl-devel xz xz-devel libffi-devel findutils
  • Fedora
sudo dnf group install "Development Tools"
sudo dnf install zlib-devel bzip2 bzip2-devel readline-devel sqlite \
sqlite-devel openssl-devel xz xz-devel libffi-devel findutils tk tk-devel

Alternative of openssl-devel:

sudo yum install compat-openssl10-devel --allowerasing
  • openSUSE
zypper in zlib-devel bzip2 libbz2-devel libffi-devel libopenssl-devel \
readline-devel sqlite3 sqlite3-devel xz xz-devel

For building Python versions from source with OpenSUSE you need the packages in pattern devel_basis

zypper in -t pattern devel_basis
  • Alpine
apk add --no-cache bzip2-dev coreutils dpkg-dev dpkg expat-dev \
findutils gcc gdbm-dev libc-dev libffi-dev libnsl-dev libtirpc-dev \
linux-headers make ncurses-dev openssl-dev pax-utils readline-dev \
sqlite-dev tcl-dev tk tk-dev util-linux-dev xz-dev zlib-dev

For installing Pyenv with Pyenv-Installer, you would need git, curl and bash

apk add git curl bash
  • Arch and derivatives
pacman -S --needed base-devel openssl zlib bzip2 readline sqlite curl \
llvm ncurses xz tk libffi python-pyopenssl git

The library ncurses5 would require an AUR Helper to install. If using YAY:

yay -S ncurses5-compat-libs
  • macOS:
brew install readline xz

NOTE: libssl-dev is required when compiling Python, installing libssl-dev will actually install zlib1g-dev, which leads to uninstall and re-install Python versions (installed before installing libssl-dev). On Redhat and derivatives the package is named openssl-devel.

Removing a python version

rm -rf ~/.pyenv/versions/X.Y.Z

Replace X.Y.Z with the version that you want to remove. To list installed versions:

pyenv versions

Installing a 32 bit python on 64 bit Mac OS X (this will not work on Linux)

CONFIGURE_OPTS="--with-arch=i386" CFLAGS="-arch i386" LDFLAGS="-arch i386" python-build options

Installing a system-wide Python

If you want to install a Python interpreter that's available to all users and system scripts (no pyenv), use /usr/local/ as the install path. For example:

sudo python-build 3.3.2 /usr/local/

Build failed - bad interpreter: Permission denied

If you encounter this error while installing python and your server is a VPS, the /tmp directory where python-build download and compile the packages is probably mounted as noexec. You can check with your hosting provider if whether they provide a way to bypass this protection.

If the answer is no, just set the $TMPDIR environment variable to wherever you have a write + execution rights. For example:

export TMPDIR="$HOME/src"

Please note you'll have to do it every time you'll want to install a new version of python unless you write this command in your ~/.bashrc.

Build failed

If you've got something like that:

$ pyenv install 2.7.5
Downloading http://pyyaml.org/download/libyaml/yaml-0.1.4.tar.gz...
Installing yaml-0.1.4...

BUILD FAILED

Please, be sure to have "make" installed ($ sudo apt-get install make). On Ubuntu Server, by default, it doesn't.

Build failed: "ERROR: The Python zlib extension was not compiled. Missing the zlib?"

Installing Python-2.7.7...

ERROR: The Python zlib extension was not compiled. Missing the zlib?

Please consult to the Wiki page to fix the problem.
https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv/wiki/Common-build-problems

BUILD FAILED
  • On Mac OS X 10.9, 10.10, 10.11 and 10.13 you may need to set the CFLAGS environment variable when installing a new version in order for configure to find the zlib headers (XCode command line tools must be installed first):
CPPFLAGS="-I$(xcrun --show-sdk-path)/usr/include" pyenv install -v 2.7.7
  • If you installed zlib with Homebrew, you can set the CPPFLAGS environment variable:
CPPFLAGS="-I$(brew --prefix zlib)/include" pyenv install -v 3.7.0
  • Alternatively, try reinstalling XCode command line tools for your OS

If you experience both issues with openssl and zlib, you can specify both search paths as a compiler flag:

CPPFLAGS="-I$(brew --prefix openssl)/include -I$(xcrun --show-sdk-path)/usr/include" LDFLAGS="-L$(brew --prefix openssl)/lib"

If you experience issues with readline, you can also specify this as a compiler flag:

CPPFLAGS="-I$(brew --prefix openssl)/include -I$(brew --prefix readline)/include -I$(xcrun --show-sdk-path)/usr/include" LDFLAGS="-L$(brew --prefix openssl)/lib -L$(brew --prefix readline)/lib"

If you are using macOS 10.14.6 with XCode 10.3, add the following:

SDKROOT=${XCODE_ROOT}/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.14.sdk \
MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.14

ERROR: The Python ssl extension was not compiled. Missing the OpenSSL lib?

0. First, check

  • if you actually have OpenSSL and its headers installed (and for the right architecture and ecosystem if there are more than one at your machine)
  • if the problem is resolved by upgrading Pyenv to the latest release and to the head version

1. OpenSSL is installed to an uncommon location.

Pass the location of its headers and libraries explicitly:

CPPFLAGS="-I<openssl install prefix>/include" \
LDFLAGS="-L<openssl install prefix>/lib" \
pyenv install -v <python version>

or, alternatively, for Python 3.7+, instead of CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS:

CONFIGURE_OPTS="--with-openssl=<openssl install prefix>"

E.g. (invocations that worked for various people):

  • RHEL6:

    CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/include/openssl \
LDFLAGS=-L/usr/lib64 \
pyenv install -v 3.4.3

  • Arch Linux:

    LDFLAGS="-L/usr/lib/openssl-1.0" \
CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/include/openssl-1.0" \
pyenv install -v 3.4.3

  • If you installed openssl with macports:

    CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/local/include/" \
LDFLAGS="-L/opt/local/lib/" \
pyenv install -v 3.4.3

  • On Ubuntu 14.04 on Dreamhost, an extra flag is required for Python 3.7+:

2. Your OpenSSL version is incompatible with the Python version you're trying to install

Old Python versions (for CPython, <3.5.3 and <2.7.13) require OpenSSL 1.0 while newer systems provide 1.1, and vice versa. Note that OpenSSL 1.0 is EOL and by now practically unusable on the Internet due to using obsolete standards.

Install the right OpenSSL version and point the build to its location as per above if needed.

E.g.:

  • On Debian stretch and Ubuntu bionic, libssl-dev is OpenSSL 1.1.x, but support for that was only added in Python 2.7.13, 3.5.3 and 3.6.0. To install earlier versions, you need to replace libssl-dev with libssl1.0-dev.

    sudo apt-get remove libssl-dev
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libssl1.0-dev

    pyenv/pyenv#945 (comment) has a more complex workaround that preserves libssl-dev.

  • On FreeBSD 10-RELEASE and 11-CURRENT, you may need to recompile security/openssl without SSLv2 support. (See #464).

  • On Debian Jessie, you can use backports to install OpenSSL 1.0.2: sudo apt -t jessie-backports install openssl

python-build: definition not found

To update your python-build definitions:

If you have python-build installed as an pyenv plugin:

$ cd ~/.pyenv/plugins/python-build && git pull

macOS: "ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture x86_64" (#1245)

From (#1245).

This may be caused by an incompatible version of ar bundled with brew-distributed binutils.

To fix, either brew remove binutils or execute the install command with AR=/usr/bin/ar.

Python cannot find a dependent dynamic library even though it's installed

If you're getting messages lke this -- but you do have the corresponding package installed:

libreadline.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Check if the dynamic library's version you have installed is the same as what Python expects:

$ ls /lib/libreadline.so* /lib/libreadline.so /lib/libreadline.so.8 /lib/libreadline.so.8.0

Beside build time, this can also happen for an already installed version if:

  • You've installed a prebuilt version that was built for a different environment

    Many installation scripts for prebuilt versions give you a warning in such a case.

    • Get or compile the right version of the library if possible
      • it needs to be compiled for your system to avoid binary incompatibilies, so the best bets are either building from source or getting a binary from an official source for your distro; or
    • Replace the prebuilt version with a source one (usually, these are suffixed with -src if both a prebuilt and a source versions are provided)

  • You've updated a dependent library on your system to a different major version since the time you had compiled Python

    • The easiest way would be to rebuild all affected Python installations against the new version of the library with pyenv install <version> --force
    • (You can also get or compile the right version of the library instead as per above)
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