I'm trying to install psycopg2 onto Mac OS 10.6.3; it claims it can't find “stdarg.h” but I can see it's there; what should I do?

Question

I'm desperately trying to successfully install psycopg2 but keep running into errors. The latest one seems to involve it not being to find "stdarg.h" (see code below). However I can see with my own eyes that a file called stdarg.h exists at /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/usr/include/stdarg.h (where it claims it can't find anything) so I've no idea what to do about it.

I'm running Mac OS 10.6.3 and within the last few days I've made sure I have all the latest OS developer tools.

I have Python 2.6.2 and PostgreSQL 8.4 if that makes any difference.

python setup.py install    
running install
running build
running build_py
running build_ext
building 'psycopg2._psycopg' extension
creating build/temp.macosx-10.3-fat-2.6
creating build/temp.macosx-10.3-fat-2.6/psycopg
gcc -arch ppc -arch i386 -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -DPSYCOPG_DEFAULT_PYDATETIME=1 -DPSYCOPG_VERSION="2.2.1 (dt dec ext pq3)" -DPG_VERSION_HEX=0x080404 -DPSYCOPG_EXTENSIONS=1 -DPSYCOPG_NEW_BOOLEAN=1 -DHAVE_PQFREEMEM=1 -DHAVE_PQPROTOCOL3=1 -I/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6 -I. -I/opt/local/include/postgresql84 -I/opt/local/include/postgresql84/server -c psycopg/psycopgmodule.c -o build/temp.macosx-10.3-fat-2.6/psycopg/psycopgmodule.o
In file included from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6/unicodeobject.h:4,
             from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6/Python.h:85,
             from psycopg/psycopgmodule.c:27:
/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/usr/include/stdarg.h:4:25: error: stdarg.h: No such file or directory
In file included from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6/unicodeobject.h:4,
             from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6/Python.h:85,
             from psycopg/psycopgmodule.c:27:
/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/usr/include/stdarg.h:4:25: error: stdarg.h: No such file or directory
lipo: can't figure out the architecture type of: /var/folders/MQ/MQ-tWOWWG+izzuZCrAJpzk+++TI/-Tmp-//ccakFhRS.out
error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 

Answer 1

I don't know your specific problem but i recommend you to install it using macports.
Installing psycopg2 is as simply as:

sudo port install py26-psycopg2

Answer 2

The following works for me:

1. $ mkvirtualenv --no-site-packages --distribute psycopg2_test
2. $ cd $VIRTUAL_ENV
3. $ pip install psycopg2

Notes

• I installed my base Python via MacPorts.

• The above commands make use of:

  • pip
  • virtualenvwrapper
  • virtualenv

• I bootstrapped pip via the following:

  1. wget http://python-distribute.org/distribute_setup.py
  2. python distribute_setup.py
  3. easy_install pip

UPDATE: I realize it seems like a lot of yak shaving, but learning how to use virtualenv and friends is an up-front investment that pays off pretty quickly, especially when dealing with projects that have a lot of dependencies.

Answer 3

I actually had a very similar problem as this (except with OSX Lion, Python 2.7) Can't install psycopg2 in virtualenv "error: stdarg.h: No such file or directory".

I ended up using this solution: https://stackoverflow.com/a/8834568/396327

Basically, uninstalling/reinstalling XCode from scratch (and a few more hacks to get it to recognize gcc-4.2).