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 ...

Solution 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 3

sudo apt install libpq-dev python3-dev

You might need to install python3.8-dev or similar for e.g. Python 3.8.

Python 2

sudo apt install libpq-dev python-dev

If that's not enough, try

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

Solution 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.

Solution 3

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

Solution 4

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/

Good luck

Solution 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

View more solutions

Comments

[André]

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

[Praveen Gollakota]

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

[slacy]

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.

[I159]

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

[joar]

@I159 - 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).

[Sam Joseph]

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

[xamox]

Works on Ubuntu 11.10 as well. Thanks!

[caleb]

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

[Saher Ahwal]

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

[Saher Ahwal]

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

[Saher Ahwal]

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

[user2471801]

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

[Pravitha V]

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

[lajarre]

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

[Seth]

Works for me on Ubuntu 12.10.

[Duncan Parkes]

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

[jpmc26]

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.)

[David Berger]

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.

[joar]

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

[David Berger]

@joar 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.

[Unknown Coder]

This was a lifesaver. Thanks a lot!

[Ryder Brooks]

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/…

[user798719]

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

[tbradley22]

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.

[oden]

Confirmed for Postgres.app 9.3.5 also :)

[Richard D]

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 @user798719 doesn't exist for me and I just installed Postgres.app on my computer today [September 11,2014].

[elin3t]

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'

[emecas]

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

[BrockLee]

Thank you for this. I was about to go insane before I found this!

[seanv507]

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

[iamfrancisyo]

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.

[Lara]

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

[Bret]

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

[Dave]

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

[Gordon Linoff]

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

[jayeshkv]

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

[qwerty]

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

[duozmo]

Why from source instead of Homebrew?

[duozmo]

Worked for me too, no need to monkey with my path (and generally, I wouldn’t recommend sudo here - you should be able to do this in user space).

[attomos]

@duozmo 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.

[vijay]

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/se‌​tup.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

[wswld]

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

[grim]

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

[radtek]

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

[derrend]

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

[Diego Sarmiento]

Use the latest version: PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/late‌​st/bin pip install psycopg2

[zelusp]

Only @seanv507 comment solved my problem, however that linked repo is abandoned. Checkout this link for an updated solution (psycopg2.6.2 + Win64 + env)

[Storm]

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

[JesusAlvSoto]

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

[Jorge Vidinha]

Excelent Thank you so much .

[kuanb]

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.

[Jorge Leitao]

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

[nichochar]

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.

[Mark Edington]

For CentOS 7 and Python 3.4 I had to install "python34-devel". My answer to a related question: stackoverflow.com/a/42370489/26219

[Mark Edington]

If you are using Python 3 you'll need to install numbered Python devel packages. See: stackoverflow.com/a/42370489/26219

[ishandutta2007]

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

[Harry Moreno]

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.

[Ben Wheeler]

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

[sg28]

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

[LoMaPh]

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

[Palak Bansal]

Works! Thanks a lot, I spent too much time on this.

[Axis]

Best answer for Mac OS user

[Bisonbleu]

On OS X 10.14, this tuned out to be very challenging. See detailed solution here: stackoverflow.com/a/57014480/2162844

[joar]

@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.

[Mustafa]

Best and simple answer!

[Arbazz Hussain]

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

[Fawwaz Yusran]

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

[joar]

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

[Sarthak Kumar]

Works on ubuntu 20.04. Thank you!

[Devaski]

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

[Timothyjames67]

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

[joar]

@Timothyjames67 Everything below "Option 2" are specifics about "Option 2", as indicated using both h1/h2/h3 and <hr>

[nurettin]

Option #1 works on pypy as well.

[Shmack]

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.

[IllegalSkillsException]

You sir, saved my life !

[lolu]

I wish this had more upvotes! I've missed this like 3 times. worked fine thank you