Install NumPy for Python 3.2.3 on OS X 10.7.4

Question

I have been trying for months to get numpy installed for Python 3 but despite copious amounts of Googling and even posting to the numpy mailing list I am still no closer to a solution.

I have managed to get it installed via MacPorts but unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a port of MatPlotLib for Python 3 which is the main reason I am trying to install numpy...so I am a bit stuck...

I keep getting the same error whilst trying to build from the setup.py file. I have included the terminal output below.

Thanks for any help you can offer,

Adam.

Here is the terminal output:

lipo: can't figure out the architecture type of: /var/folders/zj/7xymy_2n3s71ws30v3v_qnlw0000gn/T//ccbRr0Hj.out
failure.
removing: _configtest.c _configtest.o
Running from numpy source directory.Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "setup.py", line 214, in <module>
    setup_package()
  File "setup.py", line 207, in setup_package
    configuration=configuration )
  File "/Users/adammcnicol/Downloads/numpy-1.6.2rc1/build/py3k/numpy/distutils/core.py", line 186, in setup
    return old_setup(**new_attr)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/lib/python3.2/distutils/core.py", line 148, in setup
    dist.run_commands()
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/lib/python3.2/distutils/dist.py", line 917, in run_commands
    self.run_command(cmd)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/lib/python3.2/distutils/dist.py", line 936, in run_command
    cmd_obj.run()
  File "/Users/adammcnicol/Downloads/numpy-1.6.2rc1/build/py3k/numpy/distutils/command/build.py", line 37, in run
    old_build.run(self)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/lib/python3.2/distutils/command/build.py", line 126, in run
    self.run_command(cmd_name)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/lib/python3.2/distutils/cmd.py", line 313, in run_command
    self.distribution.run_command(command)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/lib/python3.2/distutils/dist.py", line 936, in run_command
    cmd_obj.run()
  File "/Users/adammcnicol/Downloads/numpy-1.6.2rc1/build/py3k/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py", line 152, in run
    self.build_sources()
  File "/Users/adammcnicol/Downloads/numpy-1.6.2rc1/build/py3k/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py", line 169, in build_sources
    self.build_extension_sources(ext)
  File "/Users/adammcnicol/Downloads/numpy-1.6.2rc1/build/py3k/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py", line 328, in build_extension_sources
    sources = self.generate_sources(sources, ext)
  File "/Users/adammcnicol/Downloads/numpy-1.6.2rc1/build/py3k/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py", line 385, in generate_sources
    source = func(extension, build_dir)
  File "numpy/core/setup.py", line 410, in generate_config_h
    moredefs, ignored = cocache.check_types(config_cmd, ext, build_dir)
  File "numpy/core/setup.py", line 41, in check_types
    out = check_types(*a, **kw)
  File "numpy/core/setup.py", line 271, in check_types
    "Cannot compile 'Python.h'. Perhaps you need to "\
SystemError: Cannot compile 'Python.h'. Perhaps you need to install python-dev|python-devel.

Answer 1

Well, I finally managed to get NumPy to install. Not sure it is the best method but it seems to work!

First of all i needed to install distribute:

1. curl http://python-distribute.org/distribute_setup.py | python3

Then I installed pip:

1. curl https://raw.github.com/pypa/pip/master/contrib/get-pip.py | python3

After that I had to get pip on to my system path (again there are probably better ways):

1. Open Terminal
2. Type the following (single line):
   • sudo ln -s /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/bin/pip /usr/local/bin

With distribute and pip installed I then installed Nose, which NumPy needs for testing or something:

1. Again, in Terminal type the following:
   • pip install nose

Now I needed to make sure I had the latest version of Xcode:

1. From the AppStore install the latest version of Xcode
2. If you still have a /Developer folder then rename it Developer-old (not sure whether this will cause problems for me later or not)
3. Open Terminal and create a symlink to the AppStore version of Xcode (single line):
   • sudo ln -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer /Developer

With all of that out of the way time to install NumPy:

1. Download the NumPy source from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/numpy/files/NumPy/1.6.2rc1/
2. Unarchive the file
3. Open Terminal again:
   • cd into the directory created by unarchiving the file e.g.
     • cd /Users/username/Downloads/numpy-1.6.2rc1
4. Type into the Terminal the following to change the complier used to build NumPy:
   • export CC=clang
   • export CXX=clang
   • export FFLAGS=-ff2c
   • export LDSHARED='clang -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk -g' (this is a single line)
   • python3 setup.py build (this may take a while)
   • python3 setup.py install

Okay, assuming there were no errors NumPy should be installed. Time to test it out:

1. Open IDLE
2. In the Python Shell type:
   • import numpy
   • numpy.test('full')
3. This will test NumPy the final result I received with Python 3.2.3 was:
   • <nose.result.TextTestResult run=3192 errors=0 failures=1>

So the NumPy installation passes all except one test, which seems pretty good. I haven't had a chance to see if works properly yet as I am still struggling to get matplotlib installed...

Hope these instructions are useful to somebody!

Adam.

Answer 2

I'm using Python 3.3 and OS X 10.7, and I installed numpy using a much easier method than above. I'm posting here in case it can help someone.

Follow these steps:

• Download the zip file from numpy on github, and unpack it wherever you want.
• Open a terminal and cd to the directory
• enter the command python3 setup.py build --fcompiler=gnu95 (requires gfortran. Enter gfortran -v to see if you've got it, I've got version 4.6.2)
• enter python3 setup.py install

That's all it took for me. Running numpy.test('full') gives me some errors, however: http://pastebin.com/5XF0qAe5

I don't know what kind of errors I'm going to experience yet.

Answer 3

The above answer worked great for me, except that you mentioned this was for OS X 10.7 (same here) so my build command did complain about the line:

• export LDSHARED='clang -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk -g' (this is a single line)

So, I just changed that to 10.7 and it worked fine. Apparently, for OS X 10.7, the /Developer/SDKs/ directory contains MacOSX10.7.sdk and MacOSX10.8.sdk. Thanks for the great answer!

Answer 4

I've come back to this answer a number of times, if you're using 10.8, you need to do a few things to get this to work (but I don't think you need the LDSHARED part).

1. Install XCode from Apple as well as the command line tools (this gets you the compilers you need).

2. set environment variables to point to clang and use easy_install (NOT distribute) to install, this line will work:

   CC=clang CXX=clang FFLAGS=-ff2c easy_install numpy

3. Do not try to install other packages at the same time. The numpy install may exit claiming an error, but often it manages to install itself anyways (for example, if you try to install in a virtualenv, this may happen).

Answer 5

for me i installed python3 from their website and then to install numpy,

pip3 install numpy

it works!