How to install lxml on Windows

Question

I'm trying to install lmxl on my Windows 8.1 laptop with Python 3.4 and failing miserably.

First off, I tried the simple and obvious solution: pip install lxml. However, this didn't work. Here's what it said:

Downloading/unpacking lxml   Running setup.py (path:C:\Users\CARTE_~1\AppData\Local\Temp\pip_build_carte_000\lxml\setup.py) egg_info for package lxml     Building lxml version 3.4.2.     Building without Cython.     ERROR: b"'xslt-config' is not recognized as an internal or external command,\r\noperable program or batch file.\r\n"     ** make sure the development packages of libxml2 and libxslt are installed **      Using build configuration of libxslt     C:\Python34\lib\distutils\dist.py:260: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'bugtrack_url'       warnings.warn(msg)      warning: no previously-included files found matching '*.py' Installing collected packages: lxml   Running setup.py install for lxml     Building lxml version 3.4.2.     Building without Cython.     ERROR: b"'xslt-config' is not recognized as an internal or external command,\r\noperable program or batch file.\r\n"     ** make sure the development packages of libxml2 and libxslt are installed **      Using build configuration of libxslt     building 'lxml.etree' extension     C:\Python34\lib\distutils\dist.py:260: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'bugtrack_url'       warnings.warn(msg)     error: Unable to find vcvarsall.bat     Complete output from command C:\Python34\python.exe -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='C:\\Users\\CARTE_~1\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip_build_carte_000\\lxml\\setup.py';exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --record C:\Users\CARTE_~1\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-l8vvrv9g-record\install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile:     Building lxml version 3.4.2.  Building without Cython.  ERROR: b"'xslt-config' is not recognized as an internal or external command,\r\noperable program or batch file.\r\n"  ** make sure the development packages of libxml2 and libxslt are installed **    Using build configuration of libxslt  running install  running build  running build_py  creating build  creating build\lib.win32-3.4  creating build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  copying src\lxml\builder.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  copying src\lxml\cssselect.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  copying src\lxml\doctestcompare.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  copying src\lxml\ElementInclude.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  copying src\lxml\pyclasslookup.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  copying src\lxml\sax.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  copying src\lxml\usedoctest.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  copying src\lxml\_elementpath.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  copying src\lxml\__init__.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  creating build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\__init__.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  creating build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\builder.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\clean.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\defs.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\diff.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\ElementSoup.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\formfill.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\html5parser.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\soupparser.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\usedoctest.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\_diffcommand.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\_html5builder.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\_setmixin.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  copying src\lxml\html\__init__.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\html  creating build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron  copying src\lxml\isoschematron\__init__.py -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron  copying src\lxml\lxml.etree.h -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  copying src\lxml\lxml.etree_api.h -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml  copying src\lxml\includes\c14n.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\config.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\dtdvalid.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\etreepublic.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\htmlparser.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\relaxng.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\schematron.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\tree.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\uri.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\xinclude.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\xmlerror.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\xmlparser.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\xmlschema.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\xpath.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\xslt.pxd -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\etree_defs.h -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  copying src\lxml\includes\lxml-version.h -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\includes  creating build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources  creating build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\rng  copying src\lxml\isoschematron\resources\rng\iso-schematron.rng -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\rng  creating build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl  copying src\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\RNG2Schtrn.xsl -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl  copying src\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\XSD2Schtrn.xsl -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl  creating build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1  copying src\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1\iso_abstract_expand.xsl -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1  copying src\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1\iso_dsdl_include.xsl -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1  copying src\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1\iso_schematron_message.xsl -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1  copying src\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1\iso_schematron_skeleton_for_xslt1.xsl -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1  copying src\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1\iso_svrl_for_xslt1.xsl -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1  copying src\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1\readme.txt -> build\lib.win32-3.4\lxml\isoschematron\resources\xsl\iso-schematron-xslt1  running build_ext  building 'lxml.etree' extension  C:\Python34\lib\distutils\dist.py:260: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'bugtrack_url'    warnings.warn(msg)  error: Unable to find vcvarsall.bat  ---------------------------------------- Cleaning up... Command C:\Python34\python.exe -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='C:\\Users\\CARTE_~1\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip_build_carte_000\\lxml\\setup.py';exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --record C:\Users\CARTE_~1\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-l8vvrv9g-record\install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile failed with error code 1 in C:\Users\CARTE_~1\AppData\Local\Temp\pip_build_carte_000\lxml Storing debug log for failure in C:\Users\carte_000\pip\pip.log 

So then I looked on this great and helpful thing called The Internet and a lot of people have the same error of needing libxml2 and libxlst. They recommend a guy called Christoph Gohlke's page where he provides some sort of binary thingy for a bunch of packages. You can find it here (quicklink to the lxml part).

So after I gave up on trying to find libxml2 and libxslt for pip, I decided to go there, and found an absolute ton of downloads. I know I need a 64-bit one, but I have no idea which "cp" I need.

So an answer either giving me a solution on the pip method or the Gohlke index method would be great.

Answer 1

Or you can also go to Christoph's Gohlke's Python page and then download the right lxml file. (Generally since I use python 3.4 and I have a windows, I download the lxml-3.4.4-cp34-none-win32.whl)

Go to the folder it is in. Click in the background (so nothing is selected), then leftshift + rightclick at the same time and click on open command window. Then type C:/Python34/Scripts/pip install "NAME OF THE FILE YOU JUST DOWNLOADED.whl"

In this case it would be C:/Python34/Scripts/pip install "lxml-3.4.4-cp34-none-win32.whl"

Now hit enter. This worked well for me, and after you type the quote you can also press tab and it should fill the right one for you.