No module named _cffi_backend

Question

I have Python 2.6 in my Linux rhel-5. I have installed pip and required CFFI packages. When I try to run a sample CFFI program:

ffi = FFI()

it says:

File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/cffi/api.py", line 56, in __init__
    import _cffi_backend as backend
ImportError: No module named _cffi_backend

What could be the possible error? Did I miss something during installation? I have installed pip, wheel, pycparser, pytest and cffi.

score 67 · Answer 1 · answered May 23 '18 at 11:13

67

For python2.x use following command:

python -m pip install cffi

for python3.x

python3 -m pip install cffi

answered May 23 '18 at 11:13

Bhavesh Odedra

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8

I had to uninstall cffi first (`pip uninstall cffi`) and then reinstall again, because it said it was already installed – Thomas Jul 10 '18 at 13:38

score 20 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 03 '19 at 05:52

20

I needed to uninstall and install it again:

sudo pip uninstall cryptography

sudo pip uninstall paramiko

then install pagamiko again

sudo pip install paramiko

and it start to work for me

edited Nov 03 '19 at 05:52

Ehsan

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answered Jul 26 '16 at 15:36

user6640657

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score 13 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 22 '20 at 16:36

13

I recently had the same issue and none of the above solutions worked for me.

Here is what worked.

sudo apt remove python3-cffi
sudo python3 -m pip install cffi

answered Mar 22 '20 at 16:36

Hugues BONI

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score 12 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 09 '20 at 15:47

12

You have to first remove the following packages:

cryptography
bcrypt
paramiko

Now use the following command to install:

pip -vvv install --upgrade --force-reinstall cffi

edited Jan 09 '20 at 15:47

srborlongan

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answered Jan 09 '20 at 12:02

Pavel Gromov

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this solution saved me bro <3 – Farid Chowdhury Jan 19 '22 at 19:00
1

Just reinstalling did it for me. (ran into the error after downgrading fabric from 2.x to 1.x) – Smittie Apr 18 '22 at 19:45

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 26 '16 at 15:57

Did you compile Python from source, and if so, did it give you any errors during the configure/make/make install phase? Compiling Python from source can be a real beast on older Red Hat systems, so if you installed that way, I'd suggest combing through the configure and make output to be sure that no modules were left out.

In order to get pip install cffi to succeed with no errors, I had to install gcc and libffi-devel from the EL5 repos. From there, I was able to instantiate an FFI instance with no problems:

>>> from cffi import FFI
>>> ffi = FFI()
>>>

Here's the output of pip freeze, for reference:

[root@machine ~]# pip freeze
argparse==1.2.1
autobahn==0.8.10
cffi==1.5.2
characteristic==14.3.0
pika==0.9.13
pyasn1==0.1.7
pyasn1-modules==0.0.8
pycparser==2.14
pycrypto==2.6.1
pyOpenSSL==0.12
pysnmp==4.2.5
requests==2.7.0
service-identity==14.0.0
six==1.7.3
Twisted==14.0.0
version-utils==0.2.2
wheel==0.24.0
zope.interface==4.1.1

If you've got the same or better versions of the relevant packages installed, I'd try a pip -vvv install --upgrade --force-reinstall cffi, just to see if there are perhaps errors that pip was masking, and go from there.

DvdG · Answer 6 · 2021-04-07T12:15:52.770

8

I had the same problem, following this thread https://github.com/pyca/cryptography/issues/4403, I solved the problem by reinstalling and upgrading with the command:

pip install -U cffi

edited Apr 07 '21 at 12:15

answered Apr 07 '21 at 10:04

DvdG

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Solution ofr me. Python 3.8. – Kenan Begić Jan 23 '23 at 10:42

score 3 · Answer 7 · edited May 17 '23 at 07:34

3

I had the same problem. I have uninstalled the cffi and then installed it and it was solved:

pip uninstall cffi
pip install cffi

edited May 17 '23 at 07:34

Tomerikoo

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answered May 17 '23 at 07:24

Maheswarreddy Utukuru

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score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 26 '16 at 15:27

2

Have the same problem. After many attempts adding import cffi solve the issue.

Make sure you have cffi and cryptography installed.

answered Feb 26 '16 at 15:27

Antonio

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 16 '16 at 05:36

You could look at the code L56 in /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/cffi/api.py

It needs the _cffi_backend.so in your pythonpath. You could install the python-cffi for it. But not sure whether it is in your RPM repo, especially you are using RHEL-5. Here is an RPM for CENTOS http://cbs.centos.org/koji/rpminfo?rpmID=20613 Hope it helps. I am still searching the source code for building the _cffi_backend.so.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 09 '20 at 11:02

1

For me there was no way to install cffi on python3.8 because of this:

ImportError: cannot import name 'sysconfig' from 'distutils' (/usr/lib/python3.8/distutils/__init__.py)

Somehow, the package python3-distutils does not exist in Ubuntu 16.04.

So I ended up installing python3.7 and now I finally could install cffi, fixing the problem mentioned by the TS.

answered Apr 09 '20 at 11:02

Jurrian

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It was happening to me in a venv with Python 3.6 and I removed it and replaced it with a venv with Python 3.8 in my Ubuntu 20.04 and everything worked and all the problems were gone. Your answer inspired me to try a clean, radical solution. Thanks @Jurrian – Carles Mateo Sep 02 '21 at 10:24

B. Latif · Answer 11 · 2021-03-08T19:00:39.597

1

You should install cffi via pip install cffi to get the latest version. I had to restart my application for it to recognize the cffi installation.

edited Mar 08 '21 at 19:00

answered Apr 22 '20 at 20:45

B. Latif

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score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Jun 29 '21 at 18:21

1

I was getting this error while trying to get the cryptography module to work with Python 3.8 for AWS Lambda.

Adding the cffi*manylinux*.whl files to my Lambda Layer (as suggested here) worked.

The cffi module comes built in for many python distributions, but not on AWS Lambda

answered Jun 29 '21 at 18:21

mb_atx

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Could you provide more information regarding the structure of your layer? like where you uncompress the whl file? – Jun Sep 11 '21 at 00:13

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Nov 09 '21 at 10:15

For AWS Lambda I was facing the same issue when running on Python3.7. When I downgraded it to Python3.6, this issue was resolved.

I think this packaged might have been present in Python3.6 version and later was removed. Adding this package while making layers for AWS Lambda might resolve the problem for Python3.7.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Apr 07 '20 at 06:24

0

I encountered this issue when trying to install packages in a local directory using pip install -t . and then running python (2.7). My solution was to remove the -t and not install into a local directory.

answered Apr 07 '20 at 06:24

Gabe Nodarse

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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 05 '21 at 18:40

0

it worked after adding " import cffi " in my application.

please refer for more details. https://buildmedia.readthedocs.org/media/pdf/cffi/latest/cffi.pdf

answered Aug 05 '21 at 18:40

Mahesh Tawade

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While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. – Tyler2P Aug 09 '21 at 09:30

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Nov 23 '21 at 16:35

0

Thanks to @MPlanchard, for his answer which helped identify the cause

In my case, the issue was related to python3.9, changing to python3.8 it just works well!

answered Nov 23 '21 at 16:35

normalUser

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score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Jun 08 '22 at 21:08

0

After many futile efforts to install the right packages, the right python versions and building the perfect layer, resorting to installing Fabric solved it for me

answered Jun 08 '22 at 21:08

srhoades10

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score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Nov 17 '22 at 23:06

0

I got this issue running an Ansible playbook using python 3.9 under Ubuntu-18.04 in WSL2. It was sorted by doing:

sudo apt-get remove -y python3-cffi-backend

sudo apt-get install -y python3-cffi-backend

answered Nov 17 '22 at 23:06

robe007

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score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Mar 01 '23 at 17:43

0

I had the same problem, solved by

pip3.10 install cairocffi

answered Mar 01 '23 at 17:43

AlaaL

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No module named _cffi_backend

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