How to install psycopg2 with pg_config error?

Question

I've tried to install psycopg2 (PostgreSQL Database adapater) from this site, but when I try to install after I cd into the package and write

python setup.py install  

I get the following error:

Please add the directory containing pg_config to the PATH  or specify the full executable path with the option:  python setup.py build_ext --pg-config /path/to/pg_config build ...  or with the pg_config option in 'setup.cfg'. 

I've also tried 'sudo pip install psycopg2' and I got the same message.

After reading through the docs, it asks to look at the setup.cfg file (which is below):

[build_ext] define=  # PSYCOPG_DISPLAY_SIZE enable display size calculation (a little slower) # HAVE_PQFREEMEM should be defined on PostgreSQL >= 7.4 # PSYCOPG_DEBUG can be added to enable verbose debug information  # "pg_config" is required to locate PostgreSQL headers and libraries needed to # build psycopg2. If pg_config is not in the path or is installed under a # different name uncomment the following option and set it to the pg_config # full path. #pg_config=  # Set to 1 to use Python datetime objects for default date/time representation. use_pydatetime=1  # If the build system does not find the mx.DateTime headers, try # uncommenting the following line and setting its value to the right path. #mx_include_dir=  # For Windows only: # Set to 1 if the PostgreSQL library was built with OpenSSL. # Required to link in OpenSSL libraries and dependencies. have_ssl=0  # Statically link against the postgresql client library. #static_libpq=1  # Add here eventual extra libraries required to link the module. #libraries= 

However, I'm not sure if I'm suppose to edit this file, since the documentation states the following:

then take a look at the setup.cfg file.  Some of the options available in setup.cfg are also available as command line arguments of the build_ext sub-command. For instance you can specify an alternate pg_config version using:  $ python setup.py build_ext --pg-config /path/to/pg_config build  Use python setup.py build_ext --help to get a list of the options supported. 

I've gotten the list of options supported but I'm not sure where to go from there

Answer 1

Debian/Ubuntu 

Python 2

sudo apt install libpq-dev python-dev 

Python 3

sudo apt install libpq-dev python3-dev 

Additional

If none of the above solve your issue, try  sudo apt install build-essential or  sudo apt install postgresql-server-dev-all 

With pip

Install the psycopg2-binary PyPI package instead, it has Python wheels for Linux and Mac OS.

pip install psycopg2-binary 

Answer 2

I was getting this issue because I hadn't yet installed PostgreSQL on my machine yet. On mac just a simple brew install postgresql fixed the problem.