Unable to install mysqlclient using pip (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS)

Question

While installing mysqlclient using pip3 install mysqlclient I am geting an error "Failed building wheel for mysqlclient". I tried using sudo apt-get install python3.6-dev libmysqlclient-dev but didn't work. I am using ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS and python 3.6.8. I was trying to install the mysqlclient in a virtual env. The mysql server is working fine. I used the same method to install on a local windows machine and it worked fine but i can seem to make it work on server. Any ideas on why this happening. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Error

Collecting mysqlclient
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/d0/97/7326248ac8d5049968bf4ec708a5d3d4806e412a42e74160d7f266a3e03a/mysqlclient-1.4.6.tar.gz
Building wheels for collected packages: mysqlclient
  Building wheel for mysqlclient (setup.py) ... error
  ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
   command: /home/abhishek/Django/bin/python3 -u -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'/tmp/pip-install-cl9xqcgy/mysqlclient/setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'/tmp/pip-install-cl9xqcgy/mysqlclient/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-345d65je --python-tag cp36
       cwd: /tmp/pip-install-cl9xqcgy/mysqlclient/
  Complete output (31 lines):
  running bdist_wheel
  running build
  running build_py
  creating build
  creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6
  creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/__init__.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/_exceptions.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/compat.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/connections.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/converters.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/cursors.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/release.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/times.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
  creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/__init__.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/CLIENT.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/CR.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/ER.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/FIELD_TYPE.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/FLAG.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
  running build_ext
  building 'MySQLdb._mysql' extension
  creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.6
  creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
  x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc -pthread -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -g -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fPIC -Dversion_info=(1,4,6,'final',0) -D__version__=1.4.6 -I/usr/include/mysql -I/usr/include/python3.6m -I/home/abhishek/Django/include/python3.6m -c MySQLdb/_mysql.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/_mysql.o
  x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc -pthread -shared -Wl,-O1 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro -g -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/_mysql.o -lmysqlclient -lpthread -lz -lm -lrt -latomic -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -o build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/_mysql.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
  /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lssl
  /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lcrypto
  collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
  error: command 'x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc' failed with exit status 1
  ----------------------------------------
  ERROR: Failed building wheel for mysqlclient
  Running setup.py clean for mysqlclient
Failed to build mysqlclient
Installing collected packages: mysqlclient
    Running setup.py install for mysqlclient ... error
    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: /home/abhishek/Django/bin/python3 -u -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'/tmp/pip-install-cl9xqcgy/mysqlclient/setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'/tmp/pip-install-cl9xqcgy/mysqlclient/setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' install --record /tmp/pip-record-m81sgzux/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile --install-headers /home/abhishek/Django/include/site/python3.6/mysqlclient
         cwd: /tmp/pip-install-cl9xqcgy/mysqlclient/
    Complete output (31 lines):
    running install
    running build
    running build_py
    creating build
    creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6
    creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/__init__.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/_exceptions.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/compat.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/connections.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/converters.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/cursors.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/release.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/times.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
    creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/__init__.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/CLIENT.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/CR.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/ER.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/FIELD_TYPE.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/FLAG.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/constants
    running build_ext
    building 'MySQLdb._mysql' extension
    creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.6
    creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb
    x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc -pthread -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -g -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fPIC -Dversion_info=(1,4,6,'final',0) -D__version__=1.4.6 -I/usr/include/mysql -I/usr/include/python3.6m -I/home/abhishek/Django/include/python3.6m -c MySQLdb/_mysql.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/_mysql.o
    x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc -pthread -shared -Wl,-O1 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro -g -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/_mysql.o -lmysqlclient -lpthread -lz -lm -lrt -latomic -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -o build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.6/MySQLdb/_mysql.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
    /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lssl
    /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lcrypto
    collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
    error: command 'x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc' failed with exit status 1
    ----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: /home/abhishek/Django/bin/python3 -u -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'/tmp/pip-install-cl9xqcgy/mysqlclient/setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'/tmp/pip-install-cl9xqcgy/mysqlclient/setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' install --record /tmp/pip-record-m81sgzux/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile --install-headers /home/abhishek/Django/include/site/python3.6/mysqlclient Check the logs for full command output.

Answer 1

The actual error is here:

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lssl
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lcrypto

That means you do not have SSL development headers installed. You can install them like this:

sudo apt-get install libssl-dev

It worked on Windows because PyPI has binary packages available for Windows. There are no binary packages for Linux, so pip has to compile from source, which requires the development headers.