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I am trying to install the tesseract wrapper for python as user mike so that I can import tesseract. I'm following the guide here https://code.google.com/p/python-tesseract/wiki/HowToCompilePythonTesseractForCentos

However, when I execute python setup.py install

I get the error below:

    [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/test-easy-install-7351.write-test'

The installation directory you specified (via --install-dir, --prefix, or
the distutils default setting) was:

    /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

I do have sudo access but here is the problem: When I login as root the default python version is 2.6, however, when I login as mike the default python version is 2.7 (this is the one I want). So if I do sudo python setup.py install then the installation for tesseract is taking place on 2.6 rather than on 2.7.

What can I do in this scenario? Should I change permissions on the site-packages folder? I'm a bit out of options...

Anthony
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2 Answers2

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try python setup.py install --user

This will install the package on /home/your_user/.local/lib/pythonX.X/site-packages/ instead of /usr/local/lib/ where you don't have permissions (unless you use sudo).

rkachach
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m.wasowski
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  • that got me over the bump but not fully there yet. now I get this error `error: could not create 'build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg': Permission denied` – Anthony Mar 21 '14 at 11:56
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    probably because you've already build package as root. You need to `chown` buuild dir to yourself. Or remove it and compile again. – m.wasowski Mar 21 '14 at 12:01
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    @Will it installs a module from source code in userspace (setup.py is provided by module authors) – m.wasowski Jan 27 '16 at 16:46
  • works for me .. it intalled all packages in /home/user/.local/ .. great !! thanks – shiva Oct 17 '16 at 08:03
3

Maybe you can type this line as normal user:

whereis python

Assume the result is "/usr/bin/python", then:

sudo /usr/bin/python setup.py install
ZZY
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