Memcached on Heroku w/ Django : can't install

Question

I've spent a lot of time on this and it's clearly beyond my newbie understanding/skills. I tried to install django-heroku-memcacheify with pip install, which throws errors. I tracked the problem down to pylibmc, which is causing all the problems. Here's one of the interesting parts of the error log:

_pylibmcmodule.h:42:36: error: libmemcached/memcached.h: No such file or directory

here's the (almost) complete traceback:

-----> Heroku receiving push
-----> Fetching custom buildpack... done
-----> Python app detected
-----> Preparing Python interpreter (2.7.2)
-----> Creating Virtualenv version 1.7.2
 !     CLEAN_VIRTUALENV set, rebuilding virtualenv.
       Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/local/bin/python2.7
       New python executable in .heroku/venv/bin/python2.7
       Not overwriting existing python script .heroku/venv/bin/python (you must
use .heroku/venv/bin/python2.7)
       Installing         distribute..................................................................................................................................................................................................done.
   Installing pip................done.
-----> Activating virtualenv
-----> Installing dependencies using pip version 1.1
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): Django==1.4 in
./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 2))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): gunicorn==0.14.3 in     ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line   3))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): PIL==1.1.7 in    ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/PIL (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 4))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): South==0.7.5 in    ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 5))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): boto==2.1.1 in
./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 6))
       Downloading/unpacking distribute==0.6.10 (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 7))
         Using download cache from /app/tmp/repo.git/.cache/pip_downloads/http%3A%2F%2Fpypi.python.org%2Fpackages%2Fsource%2Fd%2Fdistribute%2Fdistribute-0.6.10.tar.gz
         Running setup.py egg_info for package distribute

       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): python-dateutil==1.5 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 8))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): six==1.1.0 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 9))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-appconf==0.5 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 10))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): dj-database-url==0.2.0 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 11))
       Downloading/unpacking django-compressor==dev (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 12))
         Using download cache from /app/tmp/repo.git/.cache/pip_downloads/http%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fjezdez%2Fdjango_compressor%2Ftarball%2Fdevelop
         Cannot determine compression type for file /app/tmp/repo.git/.cache/pip_downloads/http%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fjezdez%2Fdjango_compressor%2Ftarball%2Fdevelop
         Running setup.py egg_info for package django-compressor

         Requested django-compressor==dev (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 12)), but installing version 1.2a2
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-crispy-forms==1.1.2 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 13))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-extensions==0.9 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 14))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-facebook==4.0.9 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 15))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-floppyforms==1.0 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 16))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-guardian==1.0.4 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 17))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-image-cropping==0.5 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 18))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-ratings==0.3.6 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 19))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-smuggler==0.3 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 20))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-storages==1.1.4 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 21))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-subdomains==1.2.1 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 22))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-s3-folder-storage==0.1 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 23))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): django-userena==1.1.0 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 24))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): Whoosh==2.4.0 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 25))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): brabeion==0.1 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 26))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): versiontools==1.9.1 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 27))
       Obtaining django-haystack from git+https://github.com/toastdriven/django-haystack.git@25bd361d3c64cc22a1090a5053465939647d973d#egg=django_haystack-dev (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 28))
         Updating ./.heroku/src/django-haystack clone (to 25bd361d3c64cc22a1090a5053465939647d973d)
         Could not find a tag or branch '25bd361d3c64cc22a1090a5053465939647d973d', assuming commit.
         Running setup.py egg_info for package django-haystack

       Obtaining django-taggit from git+git://github.com/shacker/django-taggit.git@7987beaf357f8d3621c7fbce3b6753dd21962ee7#egg=django_taggit-dev (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 29))
         Updating ./.heroku/src/django-taggit clone (to 7987beaf357f8d3621c7fbce3b6753dd21962ee7)
         Could not find a tag or branch '7987beaf357f8d3621c7fbce3b6753dd21962ee7', assuming commit.
         Running setup.py egg_info for package django-taggit

       Obtaining django-generic-aggregation from git+git://github.com/coleifer/django-generic-aggregation.git@c76408c2c002dcab6bfc3148760ee58a19cbe05e#egg=django_generic_aggregation-dev (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 30))
         Updating ./.heroku/src/django-generic-aggregation clone (to c76408c2c002dcab6bfc3148760ee58a19cbe05e)
         Could not find a tag or branch 'c76408c2c002dcab6bfc3148760ee58a19cbe05e', assuming commit.
         Running setup.py egg_info for package django-generic-aggregation

       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): easy-thumbnails==1.0.3 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 31))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): docutils==0.9 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 32))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): httplib2==0.7.4 in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt
(line 33))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): reportlab==2.5
in ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 34))
       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): wsgiref==0.1.2
in /usr/local/lib/python2.7 (from -r requirements/common.txt (line 35))
       Downloading/unpacking django-pylibmc-sasl==0.2.4 (from -r requirements/prod.txt (line 3))
         Downloading django-pylibmc-sasl-0.2.4.tar.gz
         Storing download in cache at /app/tmp/repo.git/.cache/pip_downloads/http%3A%2F%2Fpypi.python.org%2Fpackages%2Fsource%2Fd%2Fdjango-pylibmc-sasl%2Fdjango-pylibmc-sasl-0.2.4.tar.gz
         Running setup.py egg_info for package django-pylibmc-sasl

       Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): psycopg2==2.4.5 in     ./.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from -r requirements/prod.txt (line 4))
       Downloading/unpacking pylibmc==1.2.3 (from -r requirements/prod.txt (line 5))
         Storing download in cache at /app/tmp/repo.git/.cache/pip_downloads/http%3A%2F%2Fpypi.python.org%2Fpackages%2Fsource%2Fp%2Fpylibmc%2Fpylibmc-1.2.3.tar.gz
         Running setup.py egg_info for package pylibmc

       Downloading/unpacking django-heroku-memcacheify==0.3 (from -r requirements/prod.txt (line 6))
         Downloading django-heroku-memcacheify-0.3.tar.gz
         Storing download in cache at /app/tmp/repo.git/.cache/pip_downloads/http%3A%2F%2Fpypi.python.org%2Fpackages%2Fsource%2Fd%2Fdjango-heroku-memcacheify%2Fdjango-heroku-memcacheify-0.3.tar.gz
         Running setup.py egg_info for package django-heroku-memcacheify

   Installing collected packages: distribute, django-compressor, django-haystack, django-taggit, django-generic-aggregation, django-pylibmc-sasl, pylibmc, django-heroku-memcacheify
     Found existing installation: distribute 0.6.27
       Uninstalling distribute:
         Successfully uninstalled distribute
     Running setup.py install for distribute
       Before install bootstrap.
       Scanning installed packages
       Setuptools installation detected at /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages
       Non-egg installation
       Removing elements out of the way...
       Already patched.
       /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg-info already patched.

       Installing easy_install script to /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/bin
       Installing easy_install-2.7 script to /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/bin
       After install bootstrap.
       /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg-info already exists
     Found existing installation: django-compressor 1.2a2
       Uninstalling django-compressor:
         Successfully uninstalled django-compressor
     Running setup.py install for django-compressor

     Running setup.py develop for django-haystack

       Creating /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django-haystack.egg-link (link to .)
       django-haystack 2.0.0-beta is already the active version in easy-install.pth

       Installed /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/src/django-haystack
     Running setup.py develop for django-taggit

       Creating /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django-taggit.egg-link (link to .)
       django-taggit 0.9.4 is already the active version in easy-install.pth

       Installed /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/src/django-taggit
     Running setup.py develop for django-generic-aggregation

       Creating /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django-generic-aggregation.egg-link (link to .)
       django-generic-aggregation 0.3.1 is already the active version in easy-install.pth

       Installed /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/src/django-generic-aggregation
     Running setup.py install for django-pylibmc-sasl

     Running setup.py install for pylibmc
       building '_pylibmc' extension
       gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -DUSE_ZLIB -I/usr/local/include/python2.7 -c _pylibmcmodule.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/_pylibmcmodule.o -fno-strict-aliasing
       In file included from _pylibmcmodule.c:34:
       _pylibmcmodule.h:42:36: error: libmemcached/memcached.h: No such file or directory
           _pylibmcmodule.c: In function â?~init_pylibmcâ?T:
           _pylibmcmodule.c:2140: error: â?~LIBMEMCACHED_VERSION_STRINGâ?T undeclared  (first use in this function)
           _pylibmcmodule.c:2140: warning: passing argument 3 of â?~PyModule_AddStringConstantâ?T from incompatible pointer type
       /usr/local/include/python2.7/modsupport.h:42: note: expected â?~const char *â?T but argument is of type â?~struct PylibMC_Behavior *â?T
       error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1
       Complete output from command /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/bin/python2.7 -c "import setuptools;__file__='/tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/build/pylibmc/setup.py';exec(compile(open(__file__).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --single-version-externally-managed --record /tmp/pip-Y7MRuY-record/install-record.txt --install-headers /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/include/site/python2.7:
       running install

   running build

   running build_py

   creating build

   creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7

   creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pylibmc

   copying pylibmc/__main__.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pylibmc

   copying pylibmc/pools.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pylibmc

   copying pylibmc/__init__.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pylibmc

   copying pylibmc/client.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pylibmc

   copying pylibmc/consts.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pylibmc

   copying pylibmc/test.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pylibmc

   running build_ext

   building '_pylibmc' extension

   creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7

   gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -DUSE_ZLIB -I/usr/local/include/python2.7 -c _pylibmcmodule.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/_pylibmcmodule.o -fno-strict-aliasing

   In file included from _pylibmcmodule.c:34:

   _pylibmcmodule.h:42:36: error: libmemcached/memcached.h: No such file or
directory

   In file included from _pylibmcmodule.c:34:

   _pylibmcmodule.h:75: error: expected declaration specifiers or â?~...â?T before â?~*â?T token

...Lots of errors...

   _pylibmcmodule.c: In function â?~init_pylibmcâ?T:

   _pylibmcmodule.c:2140: error: â?~LIBMEMCACHED_VERSION_STRINGâ?T undeclared (first use in this function)

   _pylibmcmodule.c:2140: warning: passing argument 3 of â?~PyModule_AddStringConstantâ?T from incompatible pointer type

   /usr/local/include/python2.7/modsupport.h:42: note: expected â?~const char *â?T but argument is of type â?~struct PylibMC_Behavior *â?T

   error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1

   ----------------------------------------
   Command /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/bin/python2.7 -c "import setuptools;__file__='/tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/build/pylibmc/setup.py';exec(compile(open(__file__).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --single-version-externally-managed --record /tmp/pip-Y7MRuY-record/install-record.txt --install-headers /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/include/site/python2.7 failed with error code 1 in /tmp/build_vk3edwx3xe4q/.heroku/venv/build/pylibmc
   Storing complete log in /app/.pip/pip.log
 !     Heroku push rejected, failed to compile Python app

To [e-mail]:crowdcademy.git
 ! [remote rejected] master -> master (pre-receive hook declined)
error: failed to push some refs to '[e-mail]:crowdcademy.git'

So here's the deal

I can't test it in my local env b/c I'm running on a windows piece of crap. But from what I've read libmemcached is already installed on heroku. And nobody else seems to have any problems with pylibmc because I couldn't find anything on google. In this post they are talking about:

that if they detect that you are loading pylibmc, they will bootstrap libmemcached for you

That might be the problem, either it's not provided or the path is wrong. Any help is appreciated! if this doesn't work out I'll have to use Redis which seems to be a lot harder... don't know if I'm advanced enough for that.

Edit Might be irrelevant, but I'm using a settings folder with init instead of a settings.py file. I've heard that this can lead to some strange behaviour since heroku doesn't always remember that this is possible.

Edit 2

Since there are hundreds of people runnning memcached and django on heroku without any problems, I don't think that heroku-users are supposed to install libmemcached with some sort of hack. The docs talk about it as if it is bootstrapped for you when heroku detects pylibmc in your requirements file. Which leads me to the conclusion: A) either there is something wrong in my settings or in one of the apps I use or B) heroku changed something recently and broke the automatic bootstrapping of libmemcached for django. I've tried to get a fresh install with heroku config:add CLEAN_VIRTUALENV=true but that's not working either right now. I'm hoping that it's A and somebody has had the same problem. If it's B I have no idea how to solve it.

Answer 1

Have you tried something like libmemcached-dev, memcached-dev ? You need SOURCES of libmemcached !

Answer 2

Try this:

sudo apt-get install libmemcached-dev

Answer 3

I've talked to the friendly folks at Heroku and it seems like my requirements.txt setup was causing all the havoc. Don't use a requirements file in root that imports from another requirements file! At least for pylibmc that's not working because libmemcached doesn't get bootstrapped if there is no explicit line with pylibmc in the root requirements file. I hope this will help others avoid wasting the 10 hrs I've spent on this problem. Yay!

Answer 4

You need libmemcached installed.

You don't need the development headers or anything, the regular ones are more than enough!

If you can't install libmemcached, you can't install pylibmc. Sorry about that but there's not much to do about it.

There is a way to get around this but it's a crap idea so message me if you want the details.