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 ...

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

The answers so far are too much like magic recipes. The error that you received tells you that pip cannot find a needed part of the PostgreSQL Query library. Possibly this is because you have it installed in a non-standard place for your OS which is why the message suggests using the --pg-config option.

But a more common reason is that you don't have libpq installed at all. This commonly happens on machines where you do NOT have PostgreSQL server installed because you only want to run client apps, not the server itself. Each OS/distro is different, for instance on Debian/Ubuntu you need to install libpq-dev. This allows you to compile and link code against the PostgreSQL Query library.

Most of the answers also suggest installing a Python dev library. Be careful. If you are only using the default Python installed by your distro, that will work, but if you have a newer version, it could cause problems. If you have built Python on this machine then you already have the dev libraries needed for compiling C/C++ libraries to interface with Python. As long as you are using the correct pip version, the one installed in the same bin folder as the python binary, then you are all set. No need to install the old version.

Answer 3

if pip is not working than you can download .whl file from here https://pypi.python.org/pypi/psycopg2 extract it.. than python setup.py install

Answer 4

I've done this before where in windows you install first into your base python installation.

Then, you manually copy the installed psycopg2 to the virtualenv install.

It's not pretty, but it works.

Answer 5

Besides installing the required packages, I also needed to manually add PostgreSQL bin directory to PATH.
$vi ~/.bash_profile
Add PATH=/usr/pgsql-9.2/bin:$PATH before export PATH.
$source ~/.bash_profile
$pip install psycopg2

Answer 6

For lowly Windows users were stuck having to install psycopg2 from the link below, just install it to whatever Python installation you have setup. It will place the folder named "psycopg2" in the site-packages folder of your python installation.

After that, just copy that folder to the site-packages directory of your virtualenv and you will have no problems.

here is the link you can find the executable to install psycopg2

http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/