Cannot install mysqlclient on MacOS

Question

I have been trying to integrate mysql into my Flask project. I recently moved to a MacOS so having a hard time installing the dependencies. I tried to download mysql client using pip but gives the following error

  Using cached mysqlclient-2.2.0.tar.gz (89 kB)
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error
  
  × Getting requirements to build wheel did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [25 lines of output]
      Trying pkg-config --exists mysqlclient
      Command 'pkg-config --exists mysqlclient' returned non-zero exit status 1.
      Trying pkg-config --exists mariadb
      Command 'pkg-config --exists mariadb' returned non-zero exit status 1.
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "/Users/L053984/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 353, in <module>
          main()
        File "/Users/L053984/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 335, in main
          json_out['return_val'] = hook(**hook_input['kwargs'])
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/Users/L053984/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 118, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
          return hook(config_settings)
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/private/var/folders/m2/4ys_q90d1530pr6h8c70xj340000gp/T/pip-build-env-0g_2cgj8/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 341, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
          return self._get_build_requires(config_settings, requirements=['wheel'])
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/private/var/folders/m2/4ys_q90d1530pr6h8c70xj340000gp/T/pip-build-env-0g_2cgj8/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 323, in _get_build_requires
          self.run_setup()
        File "/private/var/folders/m2/4ys_q90d1530pr6h8c70xj340000gp/T/pip-build-env-0g_2cgj8/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 338, in run_setup
          exec(code, locals())
        File "<string>", line 154, in <module>
        File "<string>", line 48, in get_config_posix
        File "<string>", line 27, in find_package_name
      Exception: Can not find valid pkg-config name.
      Specify MYSQLCLIENT_CFLAGS and MYSQLCLIENT_LDFLAGS env vars manually
      [end of output]
  
  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: subprocess-exited-with-error

× Getting requirements to build wheel did not run successfully.
│ exit code: 1
╰─> See above for output.

note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip

I installed brew as well as MacPorts but not able to solve the issue. Help would be appreciated

Answer 1

This doc helped me: https://github.com/PyMySQL/mysqlclient

I followed the section below.

---

macOS (Homebrew)

Install MySQL and mysqlclient:

# Assume you are activating Python 3 venv
$ brew install mysql pkg-config
$ pip install mysqlclient

If you don't want to install MySQL server, you can use mysql-client instead:

# Assume you are activating Python 3 venv
$ brew install mysql-client pkg-config
$ export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/mysql-client/lib/pkgconfig"
$ pip install mysqlclient

---

I'm using MariaDB docker image, so I didn't want to install mysql in my Mac so I followed the second instruction.