Pip can't install pyicu

Question

I am running a AWS that runs Ubuntu 20.04. I am trying to install the package pyicu, but I am facing problems. I tried running sudo apt install libicu-dev, but I still can't install pyicu. I am not able to install brew on the aws server. Any other suggestions? This is the erro message:

    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: /root/dev/big5_rest/venv/bin/python3 -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'/tmp/pip-install-se360cxw/pyicu/setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'/tmp/pip-install-se360cxw/pyicu/setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base /tmp/pip-install-se360cxw/pyicu/pip-egg-info
         cwd: /tmp/pip-install-se360cxw/pyicu/
    Complete output (53 lines):
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/tmp/pip-install-se360cxw/pyicu/setup.py", line 63, in <module>
        ICU_VERSION = os.environ['ICU_VERSION']
      File "/usr/lib/python3.8/os.py", line 675, in __getitem__
        raise KeyError(key) from None
    KeyError: 'ICU_VERSION'
    
    During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
    
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/tmp/pip-install-se360cxw/pyicu/setup.py", line 66, in <module>
        ICU_VERSION = check_output(('icu-config', '--version')).strip()
      File "/tmp/pip-install-se360cxw/pyicu/setup.py", line 19, in check_output
        return subprocess_check_output(popenargs)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 411, in check_output
        return run(*popenargs, stdout=PIPE, timeout=timeout, check=True,
      File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 489, in run
        with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as process:
      File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 854, in __init__
        self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
      File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 1702, in _execute_child
        raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg, err_filename)
    FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'icu-config'
    
    During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
    
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/tmp/pip-install-se360cxw/pyicu/setup.py", line 69, in <module>
        ICU_VERSION = check_output(('pkg-config', '--modversion', 'icu-i18n')).strip()
      File "/tmp/pip-install-se360cxw/pyicu/setup.py", line 19, in check_output
        return subprocess_check_output(popenargs)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 411, in check_output
        return run(*popenargs, stdout=PIPE, timeout=timeout, check=True,
      File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 489, in run
        with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as process:
      File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 854, in __init__
        self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
      File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 1702, in _execute_child
        raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg, err_filename)
    FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'pkg-config'
    
    During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
    
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/tmp/pip-install-se360cxw/pyicu/setup.py", line 71, in <module>
        raise RuntimeError('''
    RuntimeError:
    Please install pkg-config on your system or set the ICU_VERSION environment
    variable to the version of ICU you have installed.
    
    (running 'icu-config --version')
    (running 'pkg-config --modversion icu-i18n')
    ----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.

Answer 1

This seems to be a known issue with PyICU. Contrary to the error message and recommendations on that thread, installing pkg-config and libicu-dev didn't fix the issue for me. Only installing python3-icu (as recommended in the official PyICU docs) finally fixed it.