Reputation: 16912

What is the meaning of "Failed building wheel for X" in pip install?

This is a truly popular question here at SO, but none of the many answers I have looked at, clearly explain what this error really mean, and why it occurs.

One source of confusion, is that when (for example) you do pip install pycparser, you first get the error:

Failed building wheel for pycparser

which is then followed by the message that the package was:

Successfully installed pycparser-2.19.

# pip3 install pycparser

Collecting pycparser
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/68/9e/49196946aee219aead1290e00d1e7fdeab8567783e83e1b9ab5585e6206a/pycparser-2.19.tar.gz
Building wheels for collected packages: pycparser
  Running setup.py bdist_wheel for pycparser ... error
  Complete output from command /usr/bin/python3 -u -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='/tmp/pip-install-g_v28hpp/pycparser/setup.py';f=getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('\r\n', '\n');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, 'exec'))" bdist_wheel -d /tmp/pip-wheel-__w_f6p0 --python-tag cp36:
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
    ...
    File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2349, in resolve
      module = __import__(self.module_name, fromlist=['__name__'], level=0)
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'wheel.bdist_wheel'

  ----------------------------------------
  Failed building wheel for pycparser
  Running setup.py clean for pycparser
Failed to build pycparser
Installing collected packages: pycparser
  Running setup.py install for pycparser ... done
Successfully installed pycparser-2.19

What is going on here?

(I would like to understand how something can fail but still get installed and whether you can trust this package functioning correctly?)

So far the best partial explanation I have found is this.

Upvotes: 280

Answers (21)

Miebaka

Reputation: 295

On linux this is most likely due to build/dev tools not install. This could also affect packages like psycopg2 or pycrypto... Install this dependencies should make the issue go say.

sudo apt install build-essential libpq-dev python3-dev

Upvotes: 0

yibe

Reputation: 378

In my case, running the following solved the issue:

pip install "cython<3.0.0" wheel && pip install pyyaml==5.4.1 --no-build-isolation

Upvotes: 2

influent

Reputation: 1367

I was getting the wheels error when installing datacompy, which uses pandas, in VS Code. This solved it for me:

pip install datacompy --no-deps --ignore-installed

Upvotes: 1

Ate Somebits

Reputation: 309

In short, it means that the package in the requirements.txt is set to a relatively "deprecated" version, and the underlying implementation of your current Python environment cannot interpret the wheel source code, or intentionally produces errors.

One way of dealing with this is to replace "==" in the requirements.txt with ">=". This way, you can iteratively bump versions of only the packages that require "wheel" builds.

Upvotes: -1

pradyunsg

Reputation: 19406

(pip maintainer here!)

Update: This is no longer necessary starting Python 3.12, where pip will automatically use isolated builds in new virtual environments.

For a quick copy paste:

pip install wheel

Do that in every new virtual environment created with venv.

Read on for the details and explaination.

If the package is not a wheel, pip tries to build a wheel for it (via setup.py bdist_wheel). If that fails for any reason (like, missing system level libraries, incompatibilities with your system, bad version string in the built wheel, etc), you get the "Failed building wheel for {...}" message.

In some of these cases, currently, pip falls back to installing via setup.py install, so it's possible that the installation still succeeds. That said, pip always tries to install packages via wheels as often as it can. This is because of various advantages of using wheels (like faster installs, cache-able, not executing code again etc) and the fact that it is a standardizd format; unlike the (deprecated) setup.py install interface.

Your error message here is due to the wheel package being missing, which contains the logic required to build the wheels in setup.py bdist_wheel. (pip install wheel can fix that -- but it won't fix any build time issues due to system configuration)

Sometime in the future, we'll switch to a more modern build system by default (if you're a package author, you can opt-in by adding a pyproject.toml) that will solve this issue, through isolated build environments where you will have wheel installed. :)

PEP 517: A build-system independent format for source trees
A blog post on "PEP 517 and 518 in Plain English"

Upvotes: 232

Mayur Ghadge

Reputation: 153

for mac-os run below command in terminal

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Upvotes: -4

Shreyder

Reputation: 25

I've had an issue as well while installing "pyblake2" package. Working on MacOS M2! Error text (approx text): "Couldn't build wheel for pyblake2..." However "wheel" module was successfully installed!

Solution:

download package from the official source: https://pypi.org/project/pyblake2/#modal-close
run the "setup.py" by running: ~python3 setup.py
if it throws the errors:

a) pyblake2module.c:699:27: error: expression is not assignable Py_TYPE(&blake2bType) = &PyType_Type;
b) pyblake2module.c:703:27: error: expression is not assignable Py_TYPE(&blake2sType) = &PyType_Type;

Replace the lines:

a) Py_TYPE(&blake2bType) = &PyType_Type; -> blake2bType.tp_base = &PyType_Type;
b) Py_TYPE(&blake2sType) = &PyType_Type; -> blake2sType.tp_base = &PyType_Type;

Repeat step #2 again.

You are welcome!

Upvotes: -1

demerit

Reputation: 161

This error mostly comes up when you do not have the required packages needed by wheel. If you are using python3, then install python3-dev or python2-dev if you are using python 2.

sudo apt-get install python3-dev

sudo apt-get install python2-dev

Upvotes: 6

O.O

Reputation: 1298

I stuck with this problem for several hours when I was trying to install a package that requires 'isal', but isal installation failed:

  ----------------------------------------
  ERROR: Failed building wheel for isal
Failed to build isal
ERROR: Could not build wheels for isal which use PEP 517 and cannot be installed directly

The solution that works for me is installing libtool.

yum install libtool

Upvotes: 1

Marc Guvenc

Reputation: 81

I got the same message when I tried to install

pip install django-imagekit.

So I ran

pip install wheel

(I had python 2.7) and then I reran pip install django-imagekit and it worked.

Upvotes: 1

Yablai Bougouyou

Reputation: 1

I was trying to install python-nmap tool, and getting this error.

If you are on Linux platform, please make sure that the nmap tool is installed, otherwise the library python-nmap won't work.

On Red Hat based distribution, please install nmap CLI as follow:

sudo yum install namp

Upvotes: -4

Jantones

Reputation: 161

In my case, update the pip versión after create the venv, this update pip from 9.0.1 to 20.3.1

python3 -m venv env/python
source env/python/bin/activate
pip3 install pip --upgrade

But, the message was...

Using legacy 'setup.py install' for django-avatar, since package 'wheel' is not installed.

Then, I install wheel package after update pip

python3 -m venv env/python
source env/python/bin/activate
pip3 install --upgrade pip
pip3 install wheel

And the message was...

Building wheel for django-avatar (setup.py): started
default:   Building wheel for django-avatar (setup.py): finished with status 'done'

Upvotes: 14

Teko_boy

Reputation: 11

I had the same problem while installing Brotli

ERROR

Failed building wheel for Brotli

I solved it by downloading the .whl file from here and installing it using the below command

C:\Users\{user_name}\Downloads>pip install Brotli-1.0.9-cp39-cp39-win_amd64.whl

Upvotes: 0

Hemant c

Reputation: 173

Error :

System : aws ec2 instance (t2 small)

issue : while installing opencv python via

pip3 install opencv-python

  Problem with the CMake installation, aborting build. CMake executable is cmake
  
  ----------------------------------------
  Failed building wheel for opencv-python
  Running setup.py clean for opencv-python

What worked for me

pip3 install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel

After this you still might received fallowing error error

    from .cv2 import *
ImportError: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Installing libgl solved the error for me.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libgl1-mesa-glx

Hope this helps

Upvotes: 4

Maarten

Reputation: 499

I would like to add that if you only have Python3 on your system then you need to start using pip3 instead of pip.

You can install pip3 using the following command;

sudo apt install python3-pip -y

After this you can try to install the package you need with;

sudo pip3 install <package>

Upvotes: -2

Sharad Bhandari

Reputation: 67

This may Help you ! ....

Uninstalling pycparser:

pip uninstall pycparser

Reinstall pycparser:

pip install pycparser

I got same error while installing termcolor and I fixed it by reinstalling it .

Upvotes: -5

JanKanis

Reputation: 6672

On Ubuntu 18.04, I ran into this issue because the apt package for wheel does not include the wheel command. I think pip tries to import the wheel python package, and if that succeeds assumes that the wheel command is also available. Ubuntu breaks that assumption.

The apt python3 code package is named python3-wheel. This is installed automatically because python3-pip recommends it.

The apt python3 wheel command package is named python-wheel-common. Installing this too fixes the "failed building wheel" errors for me.

Upvotes: 2

t w

Reputation: 37

Try this:

sudo apt-get install libpcap-dev libpq-dev

It has worked for me when I have installed these two.

See the link here for more information

Upvotes: 1

not2qubit

Reputation: 16912

Since, nobody seem to mention this apart myself. My own solution to the above problem is most often to make sure to disable the cached copy by using: pip install <package> --no-cache-dir.

Upvotes: 64

SteveJ

Reputation: 3313

It might be helpful to address this question from a package deployment perspective.

There are many tutorials out there that explain how to publish a package to PyPi. Below are a couple I have used;

medium
real python

My experience is that most of these tutorials only have you use the .tar of the source, not a wheel. Thus, when installing packages created using these tutorials, I've received the "Failed to build wheel" error.

I later found the link on PyPi to the Python Software Foundation's docs PSF Docs. I discovered that their setup and build process is slightly different, and does indeed included building a wheel file.

After using the officially documented method, I no longer received the error when installing my packages.

So, the error might simply be a matter of how the developer packaged and deployed the project. None of us were born knowing how to use PyPi, and if they happened upon the wrong tutorial -- well, you can fill in the blanks.

I'm sure that is not the only reason for the error, but I'm willing to bet that is a major reason for it.

Upvotes: 6

Matthew Wai

Reputation: 1002

Yesterday, I got the same error: Failed building wheel for hddfancontrol when I ran pip3 install hddfancontrol. The result was Failed to build hddfancontrol. The cause was error: invalid command 'bdist_wheel' and Running setup.py bdist_wheel for hddfancontrol ... error. The error was fixed by running the following:

 pip3 install wheel

(From here.)

Alternatively, the "wheel" can be downloaded directly from here. When downloaded, it can be installed by running the following:

pip3 install "/the/file_path/to/wheel-0.32.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl"

Upvotes: 75

What is the meaning of &quot;Failed building wheel for X&quot; in pip install?

Answers (21)

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What is the meaning of "Failed building wheel for X" in pip install?