mysql_config not found when installing mysqldb python interface

Question

I am trying to get a Python script to run on the linux server I'm connected to via ssh. The script uses mysqldb. I have all the other components I need, but when I try to install mySQLdb via setuptools like so:,

python setup.py install 

I get the following error report related to the mysql_config command.

sh: mysql_config: command not found Traceback (most recent call last):   File "setup.py", line 15, in <module>     metadata, options = get_config()   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/MySQL-python-1.2.3/setup_posix.py", line 43, in get_config     libs = mysql_config("libs_r")   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/MySQL-python-1.2.3/setup_posix.py", line 24, in mysql_config     raise EnvironmentError("%s not found" % (mysql_config.path,)) EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found 

Has anyone else encountered this error and if so how did you resolve it/what can I do to successfully install mysqldb?

Answer 1

mySQLdb is a python interface for mysql, but it is not mysql itself. And apparently mySQLdb needs the command 'mysql_config', so you need to install that first.

Can you confirm that you did or did not install mysql itself, by running "mysql" from the shell? That should give you a response other than "mysql: command not found".

Which linux distribution are you using? Mysql is pre-packaged for most linux distributions. For example, for debian / ubuntu, installing mysql is as easy as

sudo apt-get install mysql-server 

mysql-config is in a different package, which can be installed from (again, assuming debian / ubuntu):

sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev 

if you are using mariadb, the drop in replacement for mysql, then run

sudo apt-get install libmariadbclient-dev 

Reference: https://github.com/JudgeGirl/Judge-sender/issues/4#issuecomment-186542797