Python 2.7, PIP: “Failed building wheel for …”

Question

First time using pip, trying to use the python-docs-samples tutorial library. When I run the "python -m pip install -r requirements.txt" command, a lot of scripts are pulled in, but then I get a series of "Failed building wheel" errors. One of these is shown in the attached code block (please pardon the hand-entered word-wrap linebreaks).

What is the problem? Anyone seen this before? I have not altered any parts of the library or the code that uses it, and I'm using Python 2.7.12 which is supposed to have good built-in support for PIP.

  Running setup.py bdist_wheel for PyYAML ... error
  Complete output from command C:\users\owner\python-docs-samples\env\Scripts\python.exe 
-u -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='c:\\users\\owner\\appdata\\local\\temp\\
pip-build-86ysrg\\PyYAML\setup.py';exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__)
.read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" bdist_wheel -d c:\users\owner\appdata
\local\temp\tmpljy6z0pip-wheel- --python-tag cp27:
  running bdist_wheel
  running build
  running build_py
  creating build
  creating build\lib.win32-2.7
  creating build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\composer.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\constructor.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\cyaml.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\dumper.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\emitter.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\error.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\events.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\loader.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\nodes.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\parser.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\reader.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\representer.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\resolver.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\scanner.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\serializer.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\tokens.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  copying lib\yaml\__init__.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\yaml
  running build_ext
  creating build\temp.win32-2.7
  creating build\temp.win32-2.7\Release
  checking if libyaml is compilable
  error: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified

  ----------------------------------------
  Failed building wheel for PyYAML
  Running setup.py clean for PyYAML

Answer 1

The problem is Windows, where you'll run into dependency issues and build issues with C extensions if you don't have a compiler toolchain installed.

Manually installing the binary versions of some dependencies, such as PyYAML, is one solution (eg. with easy_install as suggested). For building binary wheels from source, you can also download the free Visual C++ Compiler for Python 2.7 here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=44266

Answer 2

Install Common Dependencies

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf libtool pkg-config python-opengl python-imaging python-pyrex python-pyside.qtopengl idle-python2.7 qt4-dev-tools qt4-designer libqtgui4 libqtcore4 libqt4-xml libqt4-test libqt4-script libqt4-network libqt4-dbus python-qt4 python-qt4-gl libgle3 python-dev

Answer 3

Try this (not sure)

apt-get install -y pyyaml

I got an error 'Failed building wheel for subprocess32

apt-get install -y python-subprocess32

It worked for me!

Answer 4

Like already mentioned above, the problem is Windows.

You can download compatible python packages from here:

Unofficial Windows Binaries for Python Extension Packages

then pip install the .whl file

pip install path_2_file\package.whl

Answer 5

For me, this issue was resolved on Ubuntu 16 by upgrading pip:

pip install --upgrade pip