Sphinx 2.0.4 Install Error with MAMP 2.0: Can't Find MySQL Headers

Question

Developing locally in MAMP and need Sphinx to work with MAMP's MySQL. Basically hitting a dead end during $ sudo make.

MAMP installs without some necessary resources for Sphinx integration, mainly a mysql lib directory and an include directory filled with C header source files. These were downloaded and installed successfully (using CMake) into the following directories:

/Applications/MAMP/Library/include/mysql
/Applications/MAMP/Library/lib/mysql

After unzipping Sphinx and running:

sudo ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/sphinx --with-libstemmer --with-mysql=/Applications/MAMP/Library

I got:

******************************************************************************
ERROR: cannot find MySQL include files.

Check that you do have MySQL include files installed.
The package name is typically 'mysql-devel'.

If include files are installed on your system, but you are still getting
this message, you should do one of the following:

1) either specify includes location explicitly, using --with-mysql-includes;
2) or specify MySQL installation root location explicitly, using --with-mysql;
3) or make sure that the path to 'mysql_config' program is listed in

Changing the ./configure command to:

sudo ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/sphinx--with-libstemmer --with-mysql-includes /Applications/MAMP/Library/include --with-mysql-libs /Applications/MAMP/Library/lib

throws the following on the outset, but regardless results in a successful configuration:

configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target
configure: WARNING: invalid host type: /Applications/MAMP/Library/include
configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target
configure: WARNING: invalid host type: /Applications/MAMP/Library/lib

The log also has the following line, (which I think is relevant in a sec):

checking MySQL include files... -Iyes

Now, continuing, $ sudo make throws the following:

Making all in src
/bin/sh svnxrev.sh ..
make  all-am
g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../config  -DSYSCONFDIR="\"/usr/local/sphinx--with-libstemmer/etc\"" -DDATADIR="\"/usr/local/sphinx--with-libstemmer/var/data\"" -I/usr/local/include -Iyes   -Wall -g -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -O3 -DNDEBUG -MT sphinx.o -MD -MP -MF .deps/sphinx.Tpo -c -o sphinx.o sphinx.cpp
In file included from sphinx.cpp:16:
sphinx.h:64:19: error: mysql.h: No such file or directory

... //whole bunch of errors follow, resulting from the above

So, I know mysql.h exists in my includes file, I think I have all necessary binaries as well, and the configuration seems to see the include files so I'm tearing out my hair a bit. I'm hoping this is a simple path problem, or a syntax error on my part with the ./configure attribute since this is my first time compiling and installing from the command line.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Sphinx's ./configure uses an unknown default value for --with-mysql, which is enabled by default, which could make you think calling it is not necessary.

To get Sphinx to work with MAMP's varyingly distributed MySQL files, make sure to use each of the following attributes in your ./configure command, specifying direct paths for each:

--with-mysql= // root mysql app
--with-includes= // path to mysql header includes
--with-mysql-libs= // path to libmysqlclient.dylib files

The final command that worked for me:

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/sphinx --with-libstemmer --with-mysql=/Applications/MAMP/Library --with-mysql-includes=/Applications/MAMP/Library/include/mysql --with-mysql-libs=/Applications/MAMP/Library/lib/mysql

--prefix is your preferred install directory in usr/local and --libstemmer adds Snowball's extended stemming functionality (if you downloaded it).

If this runs without error, just make and make install and you're good to go.

Also note that there's a configure error log in the uncompressed Sphinx directory that's easy to overlook. Didn't help in this scenario, but could be really useful to others if you're having problems.