How to install MySQLdb Python data access library to MySQL on Mac OS X

Question

I m a Python newbie  but I ve just spent a day working out how to get MySQLdb working properly  and the universe according to google includes numerous references to what a PITA it is  and an inordinate number of guides that seem to be outdated   Given that this site is intended to address these sorts of problems  and I know that I m going to need a reference to the solution in future  I m going to ask the question  provide my answer and see what else floats to the surface   So the question is how to get MySQLdb working on Mac OS X

User · Answer

Install mysql and python via Macports The porters have done all the difficult work.

sudo port install py26-mysql 
sudo port install mysql5-server

should install what you need. (see Stack overflow for comments re mysql server)

If you only need to connect to mysql and not run a server then the first line is sufficient.

Macports now (early 2013) will provide binary downloads for common combinations of OS a executable architecture, for others (and if you request it) it will build from source.

In general macports (or fink) help when there are complex libraries etc that need to be installed.

Python only code and if simple C dependencies can be set up via setuptools etc, but it begins to get complex if you mix the two.

User · Answer

Or simple try    gt  sudo easy install MySQL-python   If it gives a error like below      EnvironmentError  mysql config not found     then just run this    gt  export PATH  PATH  usr local mysql bin

User · Answer

Just had this problem  again   after getting a new Lion box  Best solution I ve found  still not 100  optimal  but working    make sure you have 64-bit python    How to check if a library is 32bit 64bit built on Mac OS X   install easy install if you don t have it   http   packages python org distribute easy install html  install GCC if you don t have it    you can get it by downloading XCode Dev Tools from Apple - this is a big download -     but instead I recommend this github which has what you need  and does not have XCode   https   github com kennethreitz osx-gcc-installer I downloaded their prebuilt PKG for lion  https   github com downloads kennethreitz osx-gcc-installer GCC-10 7-v2 pkg  make sure you have downloaded a 64-BIT version of MYSQL Community    The DMG install is an easy route  http   dev mysql com downloads mysql   Set paths as follows  export PATH  PATH  usr local mysql-XXXX export DYLD LIBRARY PATH    usr local mysql lib  export ARCHFLAGS  -arch x86 64    NOTE THAT   1  in mysql-XXXX above  XXX is the specific version you downloaded    Probably  usr local mysql  would also work since this is most likely an alias to the same  but I won t pretend to know your setup  2 I have seen it suggested that ARCHFLAGS be set to  -arch i386 -arch x86 64  but specifying only x86 64 seemed to work better for me    I can think of some reasons for this but they are not strictly relevant     Install the beast  easy install MySQL-python  LAST STEP    Permanently add the DYLD LIBRARY PATH  You can add it to your bash profile or similar  This was the missing step for me  without which my system continued to insist on various errors finding  mysql so and so on  export DYLD LIBRARY PATH    usr local mysql lib   richard-boardman  just noticed your soft link solution  which may in effect be doing the same thing my PATH solution does   folks  whatever works best for you  Best reference  http   activeintelligence org blog archive mysql-python-aka-mysqldb-on-osx-lion

User · Answer

export PATH  PATH  usr local mysql bin    should fix the issue for you as the system is not able to find the mysql config file

User · Answer

Install pip   sudo easy install pip   Install brew   ruby -e    curl -fsSL https   raw github com Homebrew homebrew go install     Install mysql   brew install mysql   Install MySQLdb  sudo pip install MySQL-python   If you have compilation problems  try editing the    profile file like in one of the answers here

User · Answer

As stated on Installing MySQL-python on mac    pip uninstall MySQL-python brew install mysql pip install MySQL-python   Then test it    python -c  import MySQLdb

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A quick and easy way for Mac OS X 10 8  Mountain Lion   10 9  Mavericks   10 10  Yosemite   and 10 11  El Capitan    I assume you have XCode  its command line tools  Python  and MySQL installed    Install PIP   sudo easy install pip  Edit    profile   Might not be necessary in Mac OS X 10 10   nano    profile   Copy and paste the following two line  export PATH  usr local mysql bin  PATH export DYLD LIBRARY PATH  usr local mysql lib    Save and exit  Afterwords execute the following command   source     profile  Install MySQLdb  sudo pip install MySQL-python   To test if everything works fine just try  python -c  import MySQLdb     It worked like a charm for me  I hope it helps   If you encounter an error regarding a missing library  Library not loaded  libmysqlclient 18 dylib then you have to symlink it to  usr lib like so   sudo ln -s  usr local mysql lib libmysqlclient 18 dylib  usr lib libmysqlclient 18 dylib

User · Answer

Update for those using Python3  You can simply use conda install mysqlclient to install the libraries required to use MySQLdb as it currently exists  The following SO question was a helpful clue  Python 3 ImportError  No module named   39 ConfigParser  39    Installing mysqlclient will install mysqlclient  mysql-connector  and llvmdev  at least  it installed these 3 libraries on my machine    Here is the tale of my rambling experience with this problem   Would love to see it edited or generalised if you have better experience of the issue    apply a bit of that SO magic   Note  Comments in next paragraph applied to Snow Leopard  but not to Lion  which appears to require 64-bit MySQL  First off  the author  still   of MySQLdb says here that one of the most pernicious problems is that OS X comes installed with a 32 bit version of Python  but most average joes  myself included  probably jump to install the 64 bit version of MySQL   Bad move    remove the 64 bit version if you have installed it  instructions on this fiddly task are available on SO here   then download and install the 32 bit version  package here   There are numerous step-by-steps on how to build and install the MySQLdb libraries   They often have subtle differences   This seemed the most popular to me  and provided the working solution   I ve reproduced it with a couple of edits below  Step 0  Before I start  I assume that you have MySQL  Python  and GCC installed on the mac   Step 1  Download the latest MySQL for Python adapter from SourceForge   Step 2  Extract your downloaded package   tar xzvf MySQL-python-1 2 2 tar gz   Step 3  Inside the folder  clean the package   sudo python setup py clean   COUPLE OF EXTRA STEPS   from this comment   Step 3b   Remove everything under your MySQL-python-1 2 2 build   directory -- don t trust the  python setup py clean  to do it for you  Step 3c   Remove the egg under Users  USER  python-eggs  Step 4   Originally required editing  mysql c  but is now NO LONGER NECESSARY   MySQLdb community seem to have fixed this bug now   Step 5  Create a symbolic link under lib to point to a sub-directory called mysql  This is where it looks for during compilation   sudo ln -s  usr local mysql lib  usr local mysql lib mysql   Step 6  Edit the setup posix py and change the following  mysql config path    mysql config   to  mysql config path     usr local mysql bin mysql config   Step 7  In the same directory  rebuild your package  ignore the warnings that comes with it   sudo python setup py build   Step 8  Install the package and you are done   sudo python setup py install   Step 9  Test if it s working  It works if you can import MySQLdb   python       import MySQLdb  Step 10  If upon trying to import you receive an error complaining that Library not loaded  libmysqlclient 18 dylib ending with  Reason  image not found you need to create one additional symlink which is   sudo ln -s  usr local mysql lib libmysqlclient 18 dylib  usr lib libmysqlclient 18 dylib   You should then be able to import MySQLdb without any errors   One final hiccup though is that if you start Python from the build directory you will get this error    Library Python 2 5 site-packages MySQL python-1 2 3c1-py2 5-macosx-10 5-i386 egg  mysql py 3  UserWarning  Module  mysql was already imported from  Library Python 2 5 site-packages MySQL python-1 2 3c1-py2 5-macosx-10 5-i386 egg  mysql pyc  but XXXX MySQL-python-1 2 3c1 is being added to sys path  This is pretty easy to Google  but to save you the trouble you will end up here  or maybe not    not a particularly future-proof URL  and figure out that you need to cd    out of build directory and the error should disappear   As I wrote at the top  I d love to see this answer generalised  as there are numerous other specific experiences of this horrible problem out there  Edit away  or provide your own  better answer

User · Answer

You could try using the pure-python pymysql   sudo easy install pymysql    Or use pip if you have it installed   Then  add this before you import MySQLdb in your code   try      import pymysql     pymysql install as MySQLdb   except ImportError      pass

User · Answer

Here s another step I had to go through  after receiving an error on completing Step 9   ImportError  dlopen  Users rick  python-eggs MySQL python-1 2 3-py2 6-macosx-10 6-universal egg-tmp  mysql so  2   Library not loaded  libmysqlclient 18 dylib      sudo ln -s  usr local mysql lib libmysqlclient 18 dylib  usr lib libmysqlclient 18 dylib   Reference  Thanks  http   ageekstory blogspot com 2011 04 01 archive html

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If you are using 64 bit MySQL  using ARCHFLAGS to specify your cpu architecture while building mysql-python libraries would do the trick   ARCHFLAGS  -arch x86 64  python setup py build ARCHFLAGS  -arch x86 64  python setup py install

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On macos Sierra this work for me  where python is managed by anaconda   anaconda search -t conda mysql-python  anaconda show CEFCA mysql-python  conda install --channel https   conda anaconda org CEFCA mysql-python  The to use with SQLAlchemy      Python 2 7 13  Continuum Analytics  Inc    default  Dec 20 2016  23 05 08     GCC 4 2 1 Compatible Apple LLVM 6 0  clang-600 0 57   on darwin   Type  help    copyright    credits  or  license  for more information    Anaconda is brought to you by Continuum Analytics    Please check out  http   continuum io thanks and https   anaconda org          from sqlalchemy import           dbengine   create engine  mysql

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I ran into this issue and found that mysqlclient needs to know where to find openssl  and OSX hides this by default    Locate openssl with brew info openssl  and then add the path to your openssl bin to your PATH   export PATH   usr local opt openssl bin  PATH    I recommend adding that to your  zshrc or  bashrc so you don t need to worry about it in the future  Then  with that variable exported  which may meed closing and re-opening your bash session   add two more env variables     in terminal export LDFLAGS  -L usr local opt openssl lib  export CPPFLAGS  -I usr local opt openssl include    Then  finally  run   pipenv install mysqlclient   and it should install just fine   Source  https   medium com  shandou pipenv-install-mysqlclient-on-macosx-7c253b0112f2

User · Answer

This answer is an update  circa November 2019  None of the popular pip installs will give you a working setup on MacOS 10 13  and likely other versions as well   Here is a simple way that I got things working   brew install mysql pip install mysqlclient   If you need help installing brew  see this site  https   brew sh

[python] How to install MySQLdb (Python data access library to MySQL) on Mac OS X?

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