Python 2.7 - error installing MySQL-Python on Windows 8

Question

I have been beating my head against a wall on this for 2+ days and am making no progress.

I am trying to install the Python MySQL connectors on my Windows 8 (hate Windows 8) box.

I am using Python 2.7. I originally received an error:

vcvarsall.bat is not found.

I did some research and found that I needed VS 2008 (VC++ compiler) installed on my box and I installed the express version. I also added ProductDir value with the path to vcvarsall.bat to the following key in my registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Wow6432Node\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\9.0\\Setup\\VC.

I also added the VS90COMNTOOLS environment variable with the path to vcvarsall.bat. I am still getting an error when I run the following:

 pip install MySQL-python

Any input you can provide is most appreciated... Thanks...

The error is listed in the following snippet from the pip.log:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>

  File "c:\users\t\appdata\local\temp\pip_build_T\MySQL-python\setup.py", line 21, in <module>

    setuptools.setup(**metadata)

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\core.py", line 152, in setup

    dist.run_commands()

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 953, in run_commands

    self.run_command(cmd)

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 972, in run_command

    cmd_obj.run()

  File "build\bdist.win-amd64\egg\setuptools\command\install.py", line 53, in run

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\command\install.py", line 563, in run

    self.run_command('build')

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\cmd.py", line 326, in run_command

    self.distribution.run_command(command)

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 972, in run_command

    cmd_obj.run()

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\command\build.py", line 127, in run

    self.run_command(cmd_name)

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\cmd.py", line 326, in run_command

    self.distribution.run_command(command)

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 972, in run_command

    cmd_obj.run()

  File "build\bdist.win-amd64\egg\setuptools\command\build_ext.py", line 52, in run

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\command\build_ext.py", line 337, in run

    self.build_extensions()

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\command\build_ext.py", line 446, in build_extensions

    self.build_extension(ext)

  File "build\bdist.win-amd64\egg\setuptools\command\build_ext.py", line 186, in build_extension

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\command\build_ext.py", line 496, in build_extension

    depends=ext.depends)

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 473, in compile

    self.initialize()

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 383, in initialize

    vc_env = query_vcvarsall(VERSION, plat_spec)

  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 299, in query_vcvarsall

    raise ValueError(str(list(result.keys())))

ValueError: [u'path']

----------------------------------------
Cleaning up...
  Removing temporary dir c:\users\t\appdata\local\temp\pip_build_T...
Command C:\Python27\python.exe -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='c:\\users\\t\\appdata\\local\\temp\\pip_build_T\\MySQL-python\\setup.py';exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --record c:\users\t\appdata\local\temp\pip-d5hmns-record\install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile failed with error code 1 in c:\users\t\appdata\local\temp\pip_build_T\MySQL-python
Exception information:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pip-1.5.4-py2.7.egg\pip\basecommand.py", line 122, in main
    status = self.run(options, args)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pip-1.5.4-py2.7.egg\pip\commands\install.py", line 283, in run
    requirement_set.install(install_options, global_options, root=options.root_path)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pip-1.5.4-py2.7.egg\pip\req.py", line 1435, in install
    requirement.install(install_options, global_options, *args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pip-1.5.4-py2.7.egg\pip\req.py", line 706, in install
    cwd=self.source_dir, filter_stdout=self._filter_install, show_stdout=False)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pip-1.5.4-py2.7.egg\pip\util.py", line 697, in call_subprocess
    % (command_desc, proc.returncode, cwd))
InstallationError: Command C:\Python27\python.exe -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='c:\\users\\t\\appdata\\local\\temp\\pip_build_T\\MySQL-python\\setup.py';exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --record c:\users\t\appdata\local\temp\pip-d5hmns-record\install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile failed with error code 1 in c:\users\t\appdata\local\temp\pip_build_T\MySQL-python

Answer 1

The pip install failure suggests there is some underlying dependency on compiled files. An alternative would be to use the .exe installer from https://pypi.python.org/pypi/MySQL-python - but this isn't suitable for virtualenvs, and will fail for 64-bit Python (it will complain that it can't find Python 2.7 in the registry even though it is installed).

Luckily, Christoph Gohlke maintains some unofficial Windows binaries which are pip-installable. You can find them at at http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#mysql-python

You can now call pip install C:/PATH/TO/MySQL_python‑1.2.5‑cp27‑none‑win_amd64.whl from your main Python environment, or a virtualenv.

Ideally, wheels like these will be made available via the MySQL-python PyPI page, at which point a simple pip install will work.

(This answer is based on Carsten 's helpful comments.)