66

The setup...

Trying to set up a clean Mac os X 10.6 install to develop python/django and I didn't remember running into this on 10.5.

After installing MySQL from the installer on mysql-5.5.8-osx10.6-x86_64.dmg I ran

$ sudo pip install MySQL-python

and it seemed to go smoothly (output below)

Downloading/unpacking MySQL-python
  Downloading MySQL-python-1.2.3.tar.gz (70Kb): 70Kb downloaded
  Running setup.py egg_info for package MySQL-python
    warning: no files found matching 'MANIFEST'
    warning: no files found matching 'ChangeLog'
    warning: no files found matching 'GPL'
Installing collected packages: MySQL-python
  Running setup.py install for MySQL-python
    building '_mysql' extension
    gcc-4.2 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -Os -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -DENABLE_DTRACE -pipe -Dversion_info=(1,2,3,'final',0) -D__version__=1.2.3 -I/usr/local/mysql/include -I/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6 -c _mysql.c -o build/temp.macosx-10.6-universal-2.6/_mysql.o -Os -g -fno-common -fno-strict-aliasing -arch x86_64
    In file included from _mysql.c:36:
    /usr/local/mysql/include/my_config.h:325:1: warning: "SIZEOF_SIZE_T" redefined
    In file included from /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6/Python.h:9,
                     from pymemcompat.h:10,
                     from _mysql.c:29:
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6/pymacconfig.h:33:1: warning: this is the location of the previous definition
    In file included from _mysql.c:36:
    /usr/local/mysql/include/my_config.h:419:1: warning: "HAVE_WCSCOLL" redefined
    In file included from /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6/Python.h:8,
                     from pymemcompat.h:10,
                     from _mysql.c:29:
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6/pyconfig.h:803:1: warning: this is the location of the previous definition
    gcc-4.2 -Wl,-F. -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup build/temp.macosx-10.6-universal-2.6/_mysql.o -L/usr/local/mysql/lib -lmysqlclient_r -lpthread -o build/lib.macosx-10.6-universal-2.6/_mysql.so -arch x86_64
    warning: no files found matching 'MANIFEST'
    warning: no files found matching 'ChangeLog'
    warning: no files found matching 'GPL'
Successfully installed MySQL-python
Cleaning up...

after this I tried:

$ python -c "import MySQLdb"

and it crapped out on me with:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/MySQLdb/__init__.py", line 19, in <module>
    import _mysql
ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/_mysql.so, 2): Library not loaded: libmysqlclient.16.dylib
  Referenced from: /Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/_mysql.so
  Reason: image not found

So on to my question...

What did I do wrong?/What else do I need to do?

Googling (and searching here) for this returns a lot of results getting this error message with Ruby not too many with Python tho.

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1
  • use libmysqlclient.16.dylib for 10.5 instead Commented Jan 28, 2011 at 0:05

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
97

Just set the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH after running pip install or easy_install: 

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/mysql/lib/

Should do the job assuming your MySQL installation lives under /usr/local/mysql.

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4 Comments

This fix worked for me but I have to do it every time I try to start up django. Is there a place where I can set this (save it in a file) that will make it a permanent setting?
@thomallen if you use virtualenv you could set/unset it in your bin/activate script, otherwise I would recommend ~/.bash_profile.
which mysql /usr/local/bin/mysql so my path should be export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/bin/mysql right?
@Ava this is most likely a symbolic link only. Check where it is pointing ls -l `which mysql` and most likely you will find a lib folder there like /usr/local/mysql/lib/
57

_mysql.so refers to libmysqlclient.16.dylib. That is, the shared library that serves as the bridge between Python and the MySQL client library, _mysql.so, refers to the dynamic library for the MySQL client library, and that library cannot be loaded for some reason.

Questions you need to answer:

  • Is there a libmysqlclient.16.dylib anywhere on your system? If not, you need to install the MySQL client software.
  • If so, is the directory containing that library in your DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH setting? If not, try adding it.
  • If so, you'll have to ensure that the libmysqlclient.16.dylib file is not corrupt. My copy, installed in /opt/local/lib/mysql5/mysql/libmysqlclient.16.dylib, courtesy of MacPorts, has MD5 signature c79ee91af08057dfc269ee212915801a and is 1,462,376 bytes in size. What does your copy look like?
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12 Comments

Thanks very much Brian! My copy is at /usr/local/mysql-5.5.8-osx10.6-x86_64/lib/libmysqlclient.16.dylib, is 3,787,328 bytes and has an MD5 sig 9007ca637b74fd2b6c91c681cd4f22b0 so it's definitely different... But my DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH was empty, adding /usr/local/mysql-5.5.8-osx10.6-x86_64/lib/ to it seems to have gotten me running again. Is there a reason the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH was blank before this?
It's empty by default, I believe. Mine's empty, too, but I haven't actually tried to load the mysql library in Python for awhile. Take a look at the man page for dyld (man dyld), and look at the documentation for DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH.
I had a similar issue on Snow Leopard 10.6.6, w/Xcode4 (no PPC suport), I ended up having to add DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH to my bash profile as so: export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/mysql/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH. Never had to do that in previous installs. I hate how old and clunky this package it.
The suggestion to set the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH via export was the final piece for me. Setting it with << DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=... >> didn't work. This whole process was beyond annoying.
In Unix Bourne shell-like shells (such as bash), shell variables are local by default; that is, they are not put into the environment, but kept local to the process. The export keyword marks a variable as "exported to the environment". Thus, the linker (a subprocess to the shell) can actually see the variable. Just setting DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH, without exporting it, means it's only local to that shell--and, thus, no help in solving this problem.
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42

After easy_install, I create a soft link that solved the problem

sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib /usr/local/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib
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5 Comments

I have no idea what this did but it fixed my problem when all else failed! My humble thanks to you!!
best and simplest solution
This was the only one which worked for me too, tried everything else.
creating softlink solved my problem too. Thanks a lot!
This solution is required for the more recent versions of Mac OS as they limit the directories the OS will search for dynlibs.
8

It can also crop up if your MySQL client is newer than your MySQL-python package. In my case, I had a libmysqlclient_r.18.dylib on my machine, but not a libmysqlclient_r.16.dylib. Running pip search mysql revealed

MySQL-python - Python interface to MySQL INSTALLED: 1.2.3 LATEST: 1.2.3c1

and running pip install --upgrade MySQL-python fixed my problem.

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3 Comments

This fixed the same problem as the above dynlib hack did. Seems like the default version that's installed with pip install MySQL-python is 1.2.3, not the latest version 1.2.3c1. To get the latest version use: pip install MySQL-python==1.2.3c1
Great catch, this was my issue. It's worth mentioning that --upgrade didn't actually seem to upgrade it properly, whereas using install MySQL-python==[latest version] did
I had the same issue as @G.Moore --upgrade didn't seem to catch the new .dylib reference. pip uninstall MySQL-python && pip install MySQL-python seems to work as well.
8

On my setup (mysql 5.7.x from brew, pyenv), I had a newer lib file libmysqlclient.20.dylib. What worked was to pip uninstall MySQL-python and pip install MySQL-python.

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1 Comment

Also try pip --no-cache-dir install MySQL-python in case there's cache.
7

On the latest version of MySQL 5.7.9 it's no support from MySQL-python and I used the PyMySQL library instead. Also I added in manage.py (in Django project) these lines to emulate API of MySQL-python:

try:
    # load MySQLdb interface emulation
    import pymysql
    pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()
except ImportError:
    pass
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0

For those like me who need - or have - both MySQLdb & PyMySQL installed (in my case, I needed to have both installed because I use PyMySQL to connect to my local MySQL instances, and MySQLDb for remote/live instances):

Be sure you're using the right URI scheme. To access the local instances:

LOCAL_DATABASE_URI = 'mysql+pymysql://username:password@hostname/dbname'

and for live:

REMOTE_DATABASE_URI = 'mysql+mysqldb://username:password@hostname/dbname'

Making this distinction solved the issue for me

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