Unable to install pyodbc on Linux

I am running Linux (2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.centos.plus) and trying to install pyodbc. I am doing pip install pyodbc and get a very long list of errors, which end in

error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1

I looked in /root/.pip/pip.log and saw the following:

InstallationError: Command /usr/local/bin/python -c "import setuptools; file='/home/build/pyodbc/setup.py'; execfile('/home/build/pyodbc/setup.py')" install --single-version-externally-managed --record /tmp/pip-7MS9Vu-record/install-record.txt failed with error code 1

Has anybody had a similar issue installing pyodbc?

Jim Clouse

On Ubuntu, you'll need to install unixodbc-dev:

sudo apt-get install unixodbc-dev

Install pip by using this command:

sudo apt-get install python-pip

once that is installed, you should be able to install pyodbc successfully:

pip install pyodbc

IgorGanapolsky

I resolved my issue by following correct directions on pyodbc - Building wiki which states:

On Linux, pyodbc is typically built using the unixODBC headers, so you will need unixODBC and its headers installed. On a RedHat/CentOS/Fedora box, this means you would need to install unixODBC-devel:
yum install unixODBC-devel

Adding one more answer on this question. For Linux Debian Stretch release you would need to install the following dependencies:

apt-get update
apt-get install g++
apt-get install unixodbc-dev
pip install pyodbc

Execute the following commands (tested on centos 6.5):

yum install install unixodbc-dev
yum install gcc-c++
yum install python-devel
pip install --allow-external pyodbc --allow-unverified pyodbc pyodbc

Jeevan Chaitanya

Follow below steps to install pyodbc in any redhat version

yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel
yum install gcc-c++
yum install python-devel
pip install pyodbc

Struggled with the same issue

After running: sudo apt-get install unixodbc-dev

I was able to pip install pyodbc

cammil

I have referenced this question several times, and gone on to actually find the answer I was looking for here: pyodbc wiki

To avoid gcc error on Ubuntu Linux, I did:
sudo aptitude install g++
I also installed the following 2 packages from Synaptic:

python-dev

tdsodbc

I had the same problem on CentOS 5.5

In addition to installing unixODBC-devel I also had to install gcc-c++

yum install gcc-c++

A easy way to install pyodbc is by using 'conda'. As conda automatically installs required dependencies including unixodbc.

conda --ugrade all (optional)

then conda install pyodbc

it will install following packages:

libgfortran-ng: 7.2.0-hdf63c60_3 defaults mkl: 2018.0.3-1 defaults mkl_fft: 1.0.2-py36_0 conda-forge mkl_random: 1.0.1-py36_0 conda-forge numpy-base: 1.14.5-py36hdbf6ddf_0 defaults pyodbc: 4.0.17-py36_0 conda-forge unixodbc: 2.3.4-1 conda-forge

According to official Microsoft docs for Ubuntu 18.04 you should run next commands:

sudo su 
curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | apt-key add -
curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/18.04/prod.list > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-release.list
apt-get update
ACCEPT_EULA=Y apt-get install msodbcsql17
exit

If you are using python3.7, it is very important to run:

sudo apt-get install python3.7-dev

Isaac

I needed all that, but I also needed python devel installed:

sudo yum install python-devel

jarppa79

How about installing pyobdc from zip file? From How to connect to Microsoft Sql Server from Ubuntu using pyODBC:

Download source vs apt-get

The apt-get utility in Ubuntu does have a version of pyODBC. (version 2.1.7).
However, it is badly out-of-date (2.1.7 vs 3.0.6) and may not work well with the newer versions of unixODBC and freetds.
This is especially important if you are trying to connect to later versions of Microsoft Sql Server (2008 onwards).
It is recommended that you use the latest versions of unixODBC, freetds and pyODBC when working with the latest Microsoft Sql Server instead of relying on packages in apt-get.

I know this is an old question, but the maintainer has a pyodbc GitHub Repo.

I also found a very good example for installing FreeTDS and setting up the config files.

Following the instructions on the GitHub docs seems to me to always be the best option. As of February, 2018, for CentOs7 (they have all flavors at the link) they say:

# Add the RHEL 6 library for Centos-7 of MSSQL driver. Centos7 uses RHEL-6 Libraries.
sudo su 
curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/6/prod.repo > /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-release.repo
exit

# Uninstall if already installed Unix ODBC driver
sudo yum remove unixODBC-utf16 unixODBC-utf16-devel #to avoid conflicts

# Install the  msodbcsql unixODBC-utf16 unixODBC-utf16-devel driver
sudo ACCEPT_EULA=Y yum install msodbcsql

#optional: for bcp and sqlcmd
sudo ACCEPT_EULA=Y yum install mssql-tools
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

# optional: for unixODBC development headers
sudo yum install unixODBC-devel

# the Microsoft driver expects unixODBC to be here /usr/lib64/libodbc.so.1, so add soft links to the '.so.2' files
cd /usr/lib64
sudo ln -s libodbccr.so.2   libodbccr.so.1
sudo ln -s libodbcinst.so.2 libodbcinst.so.1
sudo ln -s libodbc.so.2     libodbc.so.1

# Set the path for unixODBC
export ODBCINI=/usr/local/etc/odbc.ini
export ODBCSYSINI=/usr/local/etc
source ~/.bashrc

# Prepare a temp file for defining the DSN to your database server
vi /home/user/odbcadd.txt

[MyMSSQLServer]
Driver      = ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server
Description = My MS SQL Server
Trace       = No
Server      = 10.100.1.10

# register the SQL Server database DSN information in /etc/odbc.ini
sudo odbcinst -i -s -f /home/user/odbcadd.txt -l

# check the DSN installation with:
odbcinst -j
cat /etc/odbc.ini

# should contain a section called [MyMSSQLServer]

# install the python driver for database connection
pip install pyodbc

I faced with same issue. For python3.6.8 and ubuntu 16.04 none of above did not help me.