sudo pip install python-Levenshtein failed with error code 1

Question

I'm trying to install the python-Levenshtein library on linux, but whenever I try to install it via:

sudo pip install python-Levenshtein

I get this error:

Command "/usr/bin/python -c "import setuptools, tokenize;file='/tmp/pip-build-LAmG4b/python-Levenshtein/setup.py';exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(file).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), file, 'exec'))" install --record /tmp/pip-KGiQPH-record/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile" failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip-build-LAmG4b/python-Levenshtein

And the error code: error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1

I'm using debian linux.

Answer 1

One of the python-Levenshtein maintainers here.

Make sure you have python-dev and build-essential packages.

Are you sure that's full error message as the actual error seem to be missing?

If a log file is created can you peek into it and add its content to the question.

Also read the official Python package installation guide. Use virtual environments. Never do sudo pip install unless you have a specific reason to do so.

Answer 2

Just in case if anyone will encounter the same issue as the author of this question:

I faced the same issue on Ubuntu 20.04. I wanted to use a library which depends on python-Levenstein.

Mikkos answer above was correct. When installing, I have obtained further line in the end of exception: 'x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc' failed with exit status 1 which directly means a problem with building tool.

Then I found this answer by Paulie

Overall, in my case it was simply executing: sudo apt-get install python3.7-dev

Then I installed the library using:

pip install python-Levenshtein

I hope this will be clear for everyone.