Error installing scikits.audiolab when using python setup.py egg_info

Question

I am trying to install scikits.audiolab with using the pip tool. Pip appears to run the command python setup.py egg_info from within the scikits.audiolab source directory. When it does so, I get this error:

Andrews-MacBook-Pro-2:scikits.audiolab-0.11.0 andrewhannigan$ pip install scikits.audiolab
Collecting scikits.audiolab
  Using cached scikits.audiolab-0.11.0.tar.gz
    Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 20, in <module>
      File "/private/var/folders/xb/qwlsm44s1wxfr82kytrgjtl80000gn/T/pip-build-vSZaU8/scikits.audiolab/setup.py", line 32, in <module>
        from numpy.distutils.core import setup
    ImportError: No module named numpy.distutils.core

    ----------------------------------------
Command "python setup.py egg_info" failed with error code 1 in /private/var/folders/xb/qwlsm44s1wxfr82kytrgjtl80000gn/T/pip-build-vSZaU8/scikits.audiolab

The issue is clearly that it can't import numpy.distutils.core . Looking at the setup.py script, this import happens early on (at the bottom of the snippet below):

#! /usr/bin/env python
# Last Change: Fri Mar 27 05:00 PM 2009 J

# Copyright (C) 2006-2007 Cournapeau David <cournape@gmail.com>
#
# This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
# the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
# Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any
# later version.
#
# This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
# WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
# PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more
# details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along
# with this library; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51
# Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA

# TODO:
#   - check how to handle cmd line build options with distutils and use
#   it in the building process

from os.path import join
import os
import sys

# The following is more or less random copy/paste from numpy.distutils ...
import setuptools

from distutils.errors import DistutilsError
from numpy.distutils.core import setup

The odd part is that if I just run the above snippet of the setup.py script via python setup.py , I don't get the import error. How does the egg_info command line argument affect the way setup.py runs and why does it suddenly make python unable to import from numpy.distutils.core ?

Answer 1

There's a problem in scikits.audiolab 's setup.py file. Take a look at https://github.com/cournape/audiolab/blob/master/setup.py :

import os

# The following is more or less random copy/paste from numpy.distutils ...
import setuptools

from numpy.distutils.core import setup

The very first thing it does is import from numpy . If numpy is not installed, this is guaranteed to fail with the import error you shared.

I suspect that between your failed installation attempt and your successful installation, you installed numpy manually with pip install numpy . It's unlikely that egg_info had anything to do with it.

Here's a demonstration of how to work around this problem, taken from the scipy project's setup.py :

def setup_package():
    ...
    build_requires = []
    try:
        import numpy
    except:
        build_requires = ['numpy']

    metadata = dict(
        ...
        setup_requires = build_requires,
        install_requires = build_requires,
    )