Homebrew install libxml2 with python modules

Question

Good morning,

I'm trying to install libxml2 with python modules. I have tried the following:

brew install --with-python libxml2                                                                  
==> Downloading ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxml2/libxml2-2.8.0.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Users/brandon/Library/Caches/Homebrew/libxml2-2.8.0.tar.gz
==> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.8.0 --without-python

As you can see... even with the --with-python flag, it is still configuring the source without python!

At the end of the install, homebrew says:

Generally there are no consequences of this for you.
If you build your own software and it requires this formula, you'll need
to add its lib & include paths to your build variables:

    LDFLAGS  -L/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.8.0/lib
    CPPFLAGS -I/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.8.0/include

When I try to install the gnome-doc-utils package:

Gnome-doc-utils requires libxml2 to be compiled
with the python modules enabled, to do so:
  $ brew install libxml2 --with-python

So obviously I tried again...

╰─ brew install libxml2 --with-python
Error: libxml2-2.8.0 already installed

I'm still new to this... so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

In my case, libxml2 was installed fine but it was not on my python import path. After editing my PYTHONPATH like so:

export PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.12.4/lib/python3.12/site-packages/

I was able to import libxml2.

$ python3
>>> import libxml2
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'libxml2'
>>> ^D

$ export PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.12.4/lib/python3.12/site-packages
$ python3
>>> import libxml2
>>> 

Answer 2

The answer from kylehunt let me fix an issue that some how started to show up after I ran "brew upgrade" after upgrading to macOS Catalina:

If you happen to see things like

Error: libxml2: /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula/libxml2.rb:53: syntax error, unexpected <<
<<<<<<< Updated upstream
^~
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula/libxml2.rb:54: syntax error, unexpected ',', expecting end
...              "--with-history",
...                              ^
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula/libxml2.rb:55: syntax error, unexpected ',', expecting end
...            "--without-python",
...                              ^
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula/libxml2.rb:57: syntax error, unexpected ',', expecting end
...               "--with-python",
...

It means you should run

brew edit libxml2

To fix the config file as it might have been broken by merge conflicts during upgrade. Look for <<<<< in the file.

Answer 3

This worked for me. First unlink/uninstall if done previously:

brew unlink libxml2
brew unlink libxslt
brew uninstall libxml2
brew uninstall libxslt

Then

brew install --framework python
brew install --with-python libxml2
brew install --with-python libxslt
brew link libxml2 --force
brew link libxslt --force

Voila!

Answer 4

What worked for was installing libxml2 with --with-python in brew command

brew install --with-python libxml2

Answer 5

First, you cannot install libxml2 because you already successfully installed it, so you will first need to uninstall it.

brew uninstall libxml2

Next you will need to edit the brew formula - which is simple enough to do --

type brew edit libxml2 and change the line

system "./configure", "--prefix=#{prefix}", "--without-python"

to this:

system "./configure", "--prefix=#{prefix}", "--with-python"

This does not fix the problem with the brew formula, but it does force the flag "--with-python", so the next time you type brew install libxml2 it will install the python libraries.

If you need to reset the formula (undo your changes), simply type brew update