Problems installing lxml in Ubuntu

Question

Getting the following errors when I do: pip install lxml

 You are using pip version 6.0.8, however version 7.1.0 is available. You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command. Collecting lxml Using cached lxml-3.4.4.tar.gz /usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'bugtrack_url' warnings.warn(msg) Building lxml version 3.4.4. Building without Cython. ERROR: /bin/sh: 1: xslt-config: not found ** make sure the development packages of libxml2 and libxslt are installed ** Using build configuration of libxslt Installing collected packages: lxml Running setup.py install for lxml /usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'bugtrack_url' warnings.warn(msg) Building lxml version 3.4.4. Building without Cython. ERROR: /bin/sh: 1: xslt-config: not found ** make sure the development packages of libxml2 and libxslt are installed ** Using build configuration of libxslt building 'lxml.etree' extension i686-linux-gnu-gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/tmp/pip-build-RLyvkw/lxml/src/lxml/includes -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c src/lxml/lxml.etree.c -o build/temp.linux-i686-2.7/src/lxml/lxml.etree.o -w In file included from src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:239:0: /tmp/pip-build-RLyvkw/lxml/src/lxml/includes/etree_defs.h:14:31: fatal error: libxml/xmlversion.h: No such file or directory #include "libxml/xmlversion.h" ^ compilation terminated. error: command 'i686-linux-gnu-gcc' failed with exit status 1 Complete output from command /home/apurva/.virtualenvs/universallogin/bin/python -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='/tmp/pip-build-RLyvkw/lxml/setup.py';exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__).read().replace('\\r\\n', '\\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --record /tmp/pip-9WRQzF-record/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile --install-headers /home/apurva/.virtualenvs/universallogin/include/site/python2.7: /usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'bugtrack_url' warnings.warn(msg) Building lxml version 3.4.4. Building without Cython. ERROR: /bin/sh: 1: xslt-config: not found ** make sure the development packages of libxml2 and libxslt are installed ** Using build configuration of libxslt running install running build running build_py creating build creating build/lib.linux-i686-2.7 creating build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml copying src/lxml/pyclasslookup.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml copying src/lxml/doctestcompare.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml copying src/lxml/sax.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml copying src/lxml/_elementpath.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml copying src/lxml/__init__.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml copying src/lxml/builder.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml copying src/lxml/ElementInclude.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml copying src/lxml/cssselect.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml copying src/lxml/usedoctest.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml creating build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/__init__.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes creating build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/soupparser.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/html5parser.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/_setmixin.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/diff.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/formfill.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/_diffcommand.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/ElementSoup.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/__init__.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/builder.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/defs.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/_html5builder.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/usedoctest.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html copying src/lxml/html/clean.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/html creating build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron copying src/lxml/isoschematron/__init__.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron copying src/lxml/lxml.etree.h -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml copying src/lxml/lxml.etree_api.h -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml copying src/lxml/includes/htmlparser.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/xinclude.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/c14n.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/xpath.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/etreepublic.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/schematron.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/xslt.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/tree.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/config.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/xmlschema.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/xmlerror.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/xmlparser.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/dtdvalid.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/uri.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/relaxng.pxd -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/etree_defs.h -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes copying src/lxml/includes/lxml-version.h -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/includes creating build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources creating build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/rng copying src/lxml/isoschematron/resources/rng/iso-schematron.rng -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/rng creating build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl copying src/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/RNG2Schtrn.xsl -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl copying src/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/XSD2Schtrn.xsl -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl creating build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1 copying src/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1/iso_dsdl_include.xsl -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1 copying src/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1/iso_abstract_expand.xsl -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1 copying src/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1/iso_schematron_message.xsl -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1 copying src/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1/iso_schematron_skeleton_for_xslt1.xsl -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1 copying src/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1/iso_svrl_for_xslt1.xsl -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1 copying src/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1/readme.txt -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/lxml/isoschematron/resources/xsl/iso-schematron-xslt1 running build_ext building 'lxml.etree' extension creating build/temp.linux-i686-2.7 creating build/temp.linux-i686-2.7/src creating build/temp.linux-i686-2.7/src/lxml i686-linux-gnu-gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/tmp/pip-build-RLyvkw/lxml/src/lxml/includes -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c src/lxml/lxml.etree.c -o build/temp.linux-i686-2.7/src/lxml/lxml.etree.o -w In file included from src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:239:0: /tmp/pip-build-RLyvkw/lxml/src/lxml/includes/etree_defs.h:14:31: fatal error: libxml/xmlversion.h: No such file or directory #include "libxml/xmlversion.h" ^ compilation terminated. error: command 'i686-linux-gnu-gcc' failed with exit status 1 ---------------------------------------- Command "/home/apurva/.virtualenvs/universallogin/bin/python -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='/tmp/pip-build-RLyvkw/lxml/setup.py';exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__).read().replace('\\r\\n', '\\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --record /tmp/pip-9WRQzF-record/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile --install-headers /home/apurva/.virtualenvs/universallogin/include/site/python2.7" failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip-build-RLyvkw/lxml 

I've already tried this: sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev before "pip install" reading this answer: Not able to install lxml verison 3.3.5 in ubuntu

but did not help. Also, tried installing python-dev, python3-dev, lib-eventdev did not help either.

Also, tried doing this: STATIC_DEPS=true pip install lxml reading this: http://lxml.de/installation.html

Did not help either! Will be very grateful if you could suggest something Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The output states ** make sure the development packages of libxml2 and libxslt are installed ** . Have you done that?

sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev libxslt-dev

Also, is there a particular reason you're install using pip instead of installing the python-lxml package that comes with Ubuntu? Installing your distribution's package should be preferred unless you have a reason to do otherwise.

Answer 2

if you don't need a specific version from PyPI, you can always use the version packaged for Ubuntu.

$ sudo apt-get install python-lxml

... and then allow system site packages in your virtualenv.

---

update:

for clarification... pip installs python packages from PyPI by default. However, many python packages are also packaged for Ubuntu and stored in the Ubuntu archives, You can install them via your system package manager (apt-get) instead of using pip. This can be helpful as the Ubuntu packages are compiled already, and will pull in any dependencies they need.

By default, virtualenv creates an isolated python enviornment, so you don't have access to system packages (that you installed using apt-get). However, you can allow system site packages in your virtualenv.

for example, let's install lxml from it's system package, create a virtualenv named "ENV" that allows access to system packages, and then import lxml to verify it works:

$ sudo apt-get install python-lxml
$ virtualenv --system-site-packages ENV
$ source ENV/bin/activate
(ENV)$ python -c "import xml"