Should python-dev be required to install pip

Question

I find that many people have troubles installing python packages with pip because python-dev is not installed. Mainly, the error:

fatal error: Python.h: No         


        

Answer 1

I checked how popular PyPi packages handle missing Python.h. My first problem was to find popular PyPi packages that build a C extension, which I solved by checking zmq/pyzmq, grpcio, and python-qpid-proton, which I know are three packages doing this.

The zmq package prints a generic catch-all error message. The grpcio package prints a specific error message which tries to be maximally helpful. The python-qpid-proton package prints the compiler error only.

ZMQ

    build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.7/scratch/vers.c:4:10: fatal error: zmq.h: No such file or directory                                                                                                                                           
        4 | #include "zmq.h"                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
          |          ^~~~~~~                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
    compilation terminated.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

    error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1                                                                                                                                                                                           

    ************************************************                                                                                                                                                                                         
    Warning: Couldn't find an acceptable libzmq on the system.                                                                                                                                                                               

    If you expected pyzmq to link against an installed libzmq, please check to make sure:                                                                                                                                                    

        * You have a C compiler installed                                                                                                                                                                                                    
        * A development version of Python is installed (including headers)
        * A development version of ZMQ >= 3.2 is installed (including headers)
        * If ZMQ is not in a default location, supply the argument --zmq=
        * If you did recently install ZMQ to a default location,
          try rebuilding the ld cache with `sudo ldconfig`
          or specify zmq's location with `--zmq=/usr/local`

https://gist.github.com/jiridanek/0fcd09f27d379ae984b84f174986093d

gRPC.io

    commands.CommandError: Diagnostics found a compilation environment issue:

    Could not find . This could mean the following:
      * You're on Ubuntu and haven't run `apt-get install python-dev`.
      * You're on RHEL/Fedora and haven't run `yum install python-devel` or
        `dnf install python-devel` (make sure you also have redhat-rpm-config
        installed)
      * You're on Mac OS X and the usual Python framework was somehow corrupted
        (check your environment variables or try re-installing?)
      * You're on Windows and your Python installation was somehow corrupted
        (check your environment variables or try re-installing?)

https://gist.github.com/jiridanek/9bff05ae79b0eb5207821fc524acf12a

Python Qpid Proton

cproton_wrap.c:150:21: fatal error: Python.h: No such file or directory
      # include 
                          ^
compilation terminated.     
error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1