Install libpq-dev on Mac OS X

Question

I'm trying to run Django with a Postgresql backend on my local Mac OS X. I've installed Django using pip:

sudo pip install Django

I've installed Postgresql with one of the binary installers here.

But when I try to install psycopg2 I get an error (pasted below) that it can't find pg_config.

From this question it seems like I should install libpq-dev but I'm not sure how.

I've tried installing libpqxx with MacPorts, but that hasn't done anything.

How do I get libpg-dev installed? Or is there something else I'm missing?

henrietta:~ $ pip install psycopg2
Downloading/unpacking psycopg2
  Downloading psycopg2-2.4.5.tar.gz (719Kb): 719Kb downloaded
  Running setup.py egg_info for package psycopg2
    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 /Users/thomas/.pip/pip.log

Solution 1

For OSX 10.9.2 Mavericks, this is what worked for me. Try installing postgres with brew first:

brew install postgresql

Then install pg

gem install pg

Solution 2

So I ended up following the advice here:

http://blog.jonypawks.net/2008/06/20/installing-psycopg2-on-os-x/

Turns out I did have pg-config installed, but I had to dig around to find it a bit. Once I included that in the path, everything worked swimmingly. Here's the snippet from that link:

PATH=$PATH:/Library/PostgresPlus/8.3/bin/ sudo easy_install psycopg2

I used pip instead of easy_install and my PostgreSQL installation directory was slightly different, but that's the gist.

Solution 3

Just install postgres from source. I'm doing that on Mac OS X. It's as easy as:

./configure 
make
sudo make install

Of course you may need extra steps like autostarting, or setting configure options, but I belive this is still most painless way of setting up on Mac OS X.

And if you for some reason want to avoid installing from source, you should look for a binary version of psycopg2, e.g. here: http://www.initd.org/psycopg/download/

sudo port install py27-psycopg2

Solution 4

In postgress.app on mavericks the file pg_config is in /Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/ so i fixed the problem in this way:

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

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Comments

[Peter Lada]

This worked A-OK for me. OSX Maverick with Postgres.app 9.2.2.0: PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/MacOS/bin pip install psycopg2

[metasequoia]

update for OSX Mav with Postgres.app 9.3.2.0 RC2 sudo PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.3/‌​bin pip install psycopg2

[ruipacheco]

Can't find /bin either. What is that directory supposed to have?

[ayjay]

Update for OSX Mav with Postgres 9.3 PATH=$PATH:/Library/PostgreSQL/9.3/bin/ pip install psycopg2

[Jason Wiener]

This was super helpful. Thanks a ton! To get this working on El Capitan, you need to use a slightly different path. sudo PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.5/‌​bin/ pip install psycopg2

[Nigel Sheridan-Smith]

I had to do brew link [email protected] --force so that the gem could find the pg_config binary