Installing psycopg2 using pip fails on macOS with the error pg_config executable not found It seems to be looking for Postgres installation. I don't want to install Postgres on host os and trying connect Django app with dockerized Postgres.
The app works fine when Django and Postgres are dockerized in separate containers, but keeping the Postgres container up and connecting with host OS Django app does not work. I'm running Django inside a python virtualenv.
You dont need to have postgres server installed.
Psycopg2 needs to have pg_config and libpq installed, there is a binary package psycopg2-binary, that has all dependencies included:
Archive: psycopg2_binary-2.8.4-cp27-cp27m-manylinux1_i686.whl
Length Date Time Name
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6281 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/pool.py
14082 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/errorcodes.py
14865 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/sql.py
4261 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/_lru_cache.py
43756 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/extras.py
2929 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/_ipaddress.py
17667 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/_range.py
4892 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/__init__.py
7084 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/extensions.py
864740 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/_psycopg.so
4408 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/tz.py
7258 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/_json.py
1382 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/errors.py
367 10-20-2019 00:46 psycopg2/compat.py
738104 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libkrb5-083f5b6f.so.3.3
106904 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libselinux-89f957db.so.1
637892 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libssl-edc39324.so.1.1.1d
9004 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libkeyutils-1-418112b0.2.so
329164 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libpq-2be1e2df.so.5.11
428784 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libldap_r-2-2e3da1cd.4.so.2.10.11
251840 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libsepol-5bd02592.so.1
3050920 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libcrypto-7d5df85f.so.1.1.1d
171928 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libk5crypto-92a64cbe.so.3.1
240952 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libgssapi_krb5-e4e762a2.so.2.2
75576 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libz-83853723.so.1.2.3
8852 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libcom_err-caa8c98e.so.2.1
55692 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/liblber-2-9ed85788.4.so.2.10.11
138640 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libsasl2-fa5e3f6a.so.3.0.0
42920 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2/.libs/libkrb5support-4db1495c.so.0.1
2238 10-20-2019 00:56 psycopg2_binary-2.8.4.dist-info/LICENSE.txt
107 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2_binary-2.8.4.dist-info/WHEEL
9 10-20-2019 00:56 psycopg2_binary-2.8.4.dist-info/top_level.txt
4297 10-20-2019 00:56 psycopg2_binary-2.8.4.dist-info/METADATA
3029 10-19-2019 20:56 psycopg2_binary-2.8.4.dist-info/RECORD
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7290824 34 files
psycopg2 uses libpq (and other libraries) to connect to the PostgreSQL database, so at the very least you will need some form of the libraries and headers that are associated with PostgreSQL install. Without these libraries and header files, psycopg2 cannot be compiled. pg_config simply tells the compiler where to find these dependencies.
I'm not sure what your reasons against installing Postgres are, but another possibility is to download and install Postgres.app, which should have all the info you need to compile psycopg2, nicely packaged within your /Applications folder.
A similar question and answer for this situation can be found here
