mysql_config not found when installing mysqldb python interface

I am trying to get a Python script to run on the linux server I'm connected to via ssh. The script uses mysqldb. I have all the other components I need, but when I try to install mySQLdb via setuptools like so:,

python setup.py install

I get the following error report related to the mysql_config command.

sh: mysql_config: command not found
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "setup.py", line 15, in <module>
    metadata, options = get_config()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/MySQL-python-1.2.3/setup_posix.py", line 43, in get_config
    libs = mysql_config("libs_r")
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/MySQL-python-1.2.3/setup_posix.py", line 24, in mysql_config
    raise EnvironmentError("%s not found" % (mysql_config.path,))
EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found

Has anyone else encountered this error and if so how did you resolve it/what can I do to successfully install mysqldb?


mySQLdb is a python interface for mysql, but it is not mysql itself. And apparently mySQLdb needs the command 'mysql_config', so you need to install that first.

Can you confirm that you did or did not install mysql itself, by running "mysql" from the shell? That should give you a response other than "mysql: command not found".

Which linux distribution are you using? Mysql is pre-packaged for most linux distributions. For example, for debian / ubuntu, installing mysql is as easy as

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

mysql-config is in a different package, which can be installed from (again, assuming debian / ubuntu):

sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev

if you are using mariadb, the drop in replacement for mysql, then run

sudo apt-get install libmariadbclient-dev

Reference: https://github.com/JudgeGirl/Judge-sender/issues/4#issuecomment-186542797


I was installing python-mysql on Ubuntu 12.04 using

pip install mysql-python

First I had the same problem:

Not Found "mysql_config"

This worked for me

$ sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev

Then I had this problem:

...
_mysql.c:29:20: error fatal: Python.h: No existe el archivo o el directorio

compilación terminada.

error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1

Then I tried with

apt-get install python-dev

And then I was happy :)

pip install mysql-python
    Installing collected packages: mysql-python
      Running setup.py install for mysql-python
        building '_mysql' extension
        gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -Dversion_info=(1,2,4,'beta',4) -D__version__=1.2.4b4 -I/usr/include/mysql -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c _mysql.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/_mysql.o -DBIG_JOINS=1 -fno-strict-aliasing -g
        In file included from _mysql.c:44:0:
        /usr/include/mysql/my_config.h:422:0: aviso: se redefinió "HAVE_WCSCOLL" [activado por defecto]
        /usr/include/python2.7/pyconfig.h:890:0: nota: esta es la ubicación de la definición previa
        gcc -pthread -shared -Wl,-O1 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/_mysql.o -L/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu -lmysqlclient_r -lpthread -lz -lm -lrt -ldl -o build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/_mysql.so

Successfully installed mysql-python
Cleaning up...

(Specific to Mac OS X)

I have tried a lot of things, but these set of commands finally worked for me.

  1. Install mysql
    brew install mysql
    
  2. brew unlink mysql
  3. brew install mysql-connector-c
  4. Add the mysql bin folder to PATH
    export PATH=/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/8.0.11/bin:$PATH
    
  5. mkdir /usr/local/Cellar/lib/
  6. Create a symlink
    sudo ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/8.0.11/lib/libmysqlclient.21.dylib /usr/local/Cellar/lib/libmysqlclient.21.dylib
    
  7. brew reinstall openssl (source)
  8. Finally, install mysql-client
    LIBRARY_PATH=$LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/opt/openssl/lib/ pip install mysqlclient
    

Update: In case this doesn't work, @vinyll suggests to run brew link mysql before step 8.


On Red Hat I had to do

sudo yum install mysql-devel gcc gcc-devel python-devel
sudo easy_install mysql-python

Then it worked.