[Python-Dev] Wrong OSX platform in sysconfig.py causing installation problems

[Ned Deily]

On May 6, 2016, at 05:42, Joseph Nunn <josephnunn at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Everyone, my first post.  I would also like to subscribe but 
> haven't seen how yet.  
> 
> So I've an issue with how the 3.5.1 OSX 
> package installs on OSX.  The problem was first made apparent 
> when trying to create a virtual environment and `pip install ZODB`, 
> which failed as clang and the linker could not find either the 
> include or lib directories for a dependency.  By adding a -v option
> to the compiler options I was able to see in the  compiler flags 
> the following:
> 
> -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk
> 
> Which was not present in the compiler flags of other people 
> who I was talking with. [...]

Hi Joseph!

Welcome!  Note this list is for the development of Python itself, not for usage or installation issues.  The Python Developer's Guide (https://docs.python.org/devguide/) including its FAQ gives information about mailing lists and other support forums to get help with general Python issues.  That said, without more information, it would be difficult to know exactly what problem you are running into but, since you mention missing headers, my guess is that you need to install Apple's Command Line Tools as described here:

https://docs.python.org/devguide/setup.html#build-dependencies

Installing Xcode by itself is not sufficient.  The sysroot and flag values you note in _sysconfigdata.py are normal and there for compatibility with installing on older versions of OS X; they should not cause a problem on newer releases.  For what it's worth, I was able to install ZODB with the current python.org 3.5.1 on OS X 10.11.4 using either venv or virtualenv.

Good luck!

--Ned

P.S. Mailing list info is available here: https://mail.python.org.  The bug tracker is here: https://bugs.python.org

--
  Ned Deily
  nad at python.org -- []