How do you install lxml on OS X Leopard without using MacPorts or Fink?

Question

I've tried this and run in to problems a bunch of times in the past. Does anyone have a recipe for installing lxml on OS X without MacPorts or Fink that definitely works?

Preferably with complete 1-2-3 steps for downloading and building each of the dependencies.

Answer 1

I compile it in /usr/local without any issues whatsoever.

Install Python, libxml2, libxslt and then lxml. You might need setuptools installed too.

Answer 2

Have you tried with easy_install?

• http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/EasyInstall

I don't own a Mac so I can't test it, but easy_install is almost considered the standard way to install python modules, so if you don't know it you should have a look at it.

Answer 3

Try installing Cython and installing from source, easy_install does fail. I haven't tried on my mac yet though.

Failing that the ports version isn't that ancient. You can see the dependencies, some of which had to be updated for my Linux build of lxml.

info py25-lxml py25-lxml @2.1.5 (python, devel)

lxml is a Pythonic binding for the libxml2 and libxslt libraries. It is unique in that it combines the speed and feature completeness of these libraries with the simplicity of a native Python API, mostly compatible but superior to the well-known ElementTree API. Homepage: http://codespeak.net/lxml/

Library Dependencies: python25, libxml2, libxslt, py25-hashlib, py25-setuptools, py25-zlib Platforms: darwin Maintainers: [email protected] [email protected]

Answer 4

This is quite up to date - march 2009: http://lsimons.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/how-to-install-lxml-python-module-on-mac-os-105-leopard/

Answer 5

Thanks to @jessenoller on Twitter I have an answer that fits my needs - you can compile lxml with static dependencies, hence avoiding messing with the libxml2 that ships with OS X. Here's what worked for me:

cd /tmp
wget http://codespeak.net/lxml/lxml-2.2.2.tgz
tar -xzvf lxml-2.2.2.tgz 
cd lxml-2.2.2
cd libs/
wget ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxml2/libxml2-2.7.3.tar.gz
wget ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxml2/libxslt-1.1.24.tar.gz
cd ..
python setup.py build --static-deps --libxml2-version=2.7.3  --libxslt-version=1.1.24 
sudo python setup.py install

Answer 6

This worked for me in the past install lxml on osx

Answer 7

Easy_install can work using this:

STATIC_DEPS=true easy_install 'lxml>=2.2beta4'

you may then need to run, depending on permissions;

STATIC_DEPS=true sudo easy_install 'lxml>=2.2beta4'

see http://muffinresearch.co.uk/archives/2009/03/05/install-lxml-on-osx/

Answer 8

lxml is included in the pypm repository:

$ pypm install lxml