Installing numpy as a dependency with setuptools

Question

This might be a follow up question of this one.

I am using setuptools to install a package of mine. As a dependency I have listed numpy. I am using Python2.7 and when I do

python setup.py install

with this setup.py file:

from setuptools import setup

setup(name = "test_pack", install_requires = ["numpy"])

I end up with this error message:

ImportError: No module named numpy.distutils

What do I need to do in order to include numpy as a dependency and install it without having python-dev installed?

---

The complete output of python setup.py install:

running install
running bdist_egg
running egg_info
writing requirements to test_pack.egg-info/requires.txt
writing test_pack.egg-info/PKG-INFO
writing top-level names to test_pack.egg-info/top_level.txt
writing dependency_links to test_pack.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
reading manifest file 'test_pack.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
writing manifest file 'test_pack.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
installing library code to build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg
running install_lib
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/test_pack
copying build/lib/test_pack/__init__.py -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/test_pack
copying build/lib/test_pack/mod.py -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/test_pack
byte-compiling build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/test_pack/__init__.py to __init__.pyc
byte-compiling build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/test_pack/mod.py to mod.pyc
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying test_pack.egg-info/PKG-INFO -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying test_pack.egg-info/SOURCES.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying test_pack.egg-info/dependency_links.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying test_pack.egg-info/requires.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying test_pack.egg-info/top_level.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
creating 'dist/test_pack-0.0.0-py2.7.egg' and adding 'build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg' to it
removing 'build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg' (and everything under it)
Processing test_pack-0.0.0-py2.7.egg
Copying test_pack-0.0.0-py2.7.egg to /home/woltan/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages
Adding test-pack 0.0.0 to easy-install.pth file

Installed /home/woltan/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/test_pack-0.0.0-py2.7.egg
Processing dependencies for test-pack==0.0.0
Searching for numpy
Reading http://pypi.python.org/simple/numpy/
Reading http://numpy.scipy.org
Reading http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1369&package_id=175103
Reading http://numeric.scipy.org
Best match: numpy 1.6.1
Downloading http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/n/numpy/numpy-1.6.1.zip#md5=462c22b8eb221c78ddd51de98fbb5979
Processing numpy-1.6.1.zip
Running numpy-1.6.1/setup.py -q bdist_egg --dist-dir /tmp/easy_install-AoFmdV/numpy-1.6.1/egg-dist-tmp-JH1j2R
non-existing path in 'numpy/distutils': 'site.cfg'
Could not locate executable g77
Found executable /opt/solstudio12.2/bin/f77
gnu: no Fortran 90 compiler found
gnu: no Fortran 90 compiler found
Found executable /opt/intel/Compiler/11.1/073/bin/intel64/ifort
Could not locate executable lf95
Could not locate executable pgf90
Could not locate executable pgf77
Found executable /opt/solstudio12.2/bin/f90
Found executable /opt/solstudio12.2/bin/f95
Could not locate executable fort
_configtest.c:1: warning: conflicting types for built-in function ‘exp’
_configtest.o: In function `main':
/tmp/easy_install-AoFmdV/numpy-1.6.1/_configtest.c:6: undefined reference to `exp'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
_configtest.c:1: warning: conflicting types for built-in function ‘exp’
_configtest.c:1:20: error: Python.h: No such file or directory
_configtest.o: In function `main':
/tmp/easy_install-AoFmdV/numpy-1.6.1/_configtest.c:6: undefined reference to `exp'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
_configtest.c:1:20: error: Python.h: No such file or directory

Answer 1

This is a known issue, tracked on numpy/numpy #2434.

I found a workaround for this: add numpy to setup_requires. Having it in both setup_requires and install_requires seems to work fine with the most recent version of setuptools.

So, your setup.py should look something like

setup(
    # Your setup specific stuff here
    setup_requires=["numpy"],  # Just numpy here
    install_requires=["numpy"],  # Add any of your other dependencies here
)

Answer 2

Unless you have access to a binary distribution (pre-compiled/built) for numpy, you'll have to have the python headers available as it needs them to build numpy. This is why most package managers come with pre-compiled versions of these packages. For example you can apt-get install python-numpy, link that into your virtualenv, and when you try to install your program with install_requires=['numpy'] it should see that it's already installed.

Answer 3

To install numpy the setuptools will download the package and compile it from source. However, there are some prerequisites to compile numpy, you can check it here.

_configtest.c:1:20: error: Python.h: No such file or directory

this error indicates that at least you do not have python-dev package installed(if you are using ubuntu/debian).