How to fix 'TypeError: an integer is required (got type bytes)' error when trying to run pyspark after installing spark 2.4.4

Question

I've installed OpenJDK 13.0.1 and python 3.8 and spark 2.4.4. Instructions to test the install is to run .\bin\pyspark from the root of the spark installation. I'm not sure if I missed a step in the spark installation, like setting some environment variable, but I can't find any further detailed instructions.

I can run the python interpreter on my machine, so I'm confident that it is installed correctly and running "java -version" gives me the expected response, so I don't think the problem is with either of those.

I get a stack trace of errors from cloudpickly.py:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\software\spark-2.4.4-bin-hadoop2.7\bin\..\python\pyspark\shell.py", line 31, in <module>
    from pyspark import SparkConf
  File "C:\software\spark-2.4.4-bin-hadoop2.7\python\pyspark\__init__.py", line 51, in <module>
    from pyspark.context import SparkContext
  File "C:\software\spark-2.4.4-bin-hadoop2.7\python\pyspark\context.py", line 31, in <module>
    from pyspark import accumulators
  File "C:\software\spark-2.4.4-bin-hadoop2.7\python\pyspark\accumulators.py", line 97, in <module>
    from pyspark.serializers import read_int, PickleSerializer
  File "C:\software\spark-2.4.4-bin-hadoop2.7\python\pyspark\serializers.py", line 71, in <module>
    from pyspark import cloudpickle
  File "C:\software\spark-2.4.4-bin-hadoop2.7\python\pyspark\cloudpickle.py", line 145, in <module>
    _cell_set_template_code = _make_cell_set_template_code()
  File "C:\software\spark-2.4.4-bin-hadoop2.7\python\pyspark\cloudpickle.py", line 126, in _make_cell_set_template_code
    return types.CodeType(
TypeError: an integer is required (got type bytes)

Answer 1

This is happening because you're using python 3.8. The latest pip release of pyspark (pyspark 2.4.4 at time of writing) doesn't support python 3.8. Downgrade to python 3.7 for now, and you should be fine.

Answer 2

Its python and pyspark version mismatch like John rightly pointed out. For a newer python version you can try,

pip install --upgrade pyspark

That will update the package, if one is available. If this doesn't help then you might have to downgrade to a compatible version of python.

---

pyspark package doc clearly states:

NOTE: If you are using this with a Spark standalone cluster you must ensure that the version (including minor version) matches or you may experience odd errors.

Answer 3

As a dirty workaround one can replace the _cell_set_template_code with the Python3-only implementation suggested by docstring of _make_cell_set_template_code function:

Notes
-----
In Python 3, we could use an easier function:

.. code-block:: python

   def f():
       cell = None

       def _stub(value):
           nonlocal cell
           cell = value

       return _stub

    _cell_set_template_code = f()

Here is a patch for spark v2.4.5: https://gist.github.com/ei-grad/d311d0f34b60ebef96841a3a39103622

Apply it by:

git apply <(curl https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ei-grad/d311d0f34b60ebef96841a3a39103622/raw)

This fixes the problem with ./bin/pyspark, but ./bin/spark-submit uses bundled pyspark.zip with its own copy of cloudpickle.py. And if it would be fixed there, then it still wouldn't work, failing with the same error while unpickling some object in pyspark/serializers.py.

But it looks like Python 3.8 support is already arrived to spark v3.0.0-preview2, so one can try it. Or, stick to Python 3.7, like the accepted answer suggests.