MySQL-python 1.2.3 and OS X 10.5: 64- or 32-bit?

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1969222

Question

I've been happily using Django and MySQL in development on an existing machine running OS X 10.4 Tiger, and have set up a similar environment in 10.5 Leopard on a new 64-bit MacBook, with a working MySQL and Python 2.6.4.

However, now I want them to communicate, easy_install MySQL-python gave ld warnings that the file is not of the required architecture, which led me to test my Python 2.4.6 install (from the Mac OS X disc image):

>>> import sys
>>> sys.maxint
2147483647

Ah. So my Python install appears to be 32-bit and (I think?) won't install MySQL-python for my 64-bit MySQL. There are lots of hacks out there for MySQL-python on OS X (mostly 1.2.2), but - after hours of reading - I'm pretty sure they won't fix this architecture mismatch. So I'm stuck because I can't decide whether to:

  • give up, remove the 64-bit MySQL install (thorough methods, please?) and use the 32-bit MySQL disc image instead;
  • re-install Python in 64-bit mode from the tarball,
    --with-universal archs-64-bit and --enable-universalsdk=
    as detailed in Python.org's 2.6 news.

So my questions for anyone who has encountered this issue are:

  1. Is installing 64-bit Python on OS X 10.5 worth bothering with?
  2. If so, (naive, lazy question!) how are the two required arguments combined?
  3. If I just skip along in 32-bit (as on my working setup) what am I missing?

I'm after a hassle-free install that's easy to reproduce on other machines (possible student use) so I'd really welcome your opinions, please!

Was it helpful?

Solution

I'm posting this here in case anyone finds this page and needs an answer...

Solution: remove the MySQL 64-bit install (change the below to match your MySQL version number):

cd /usr/local
sudo rm -rf mysql-5.1.41-osx10.5-x86_64
rm -r mysql
cd /Library/Receipts/
rm -r mysql-5.1.41-osx10.5-x86_64.pkg

Install the latest 32-bit MySQL package from the downloads page and set it up as required.

Remove MySQL-python with:

easy_install -m MySQL-python

Then delete the egg in site-packages and make sure easy_install -m removed the package line in the easy-install.pth file there.

Start up MySQL, then re-install MySQL-python (make sure you get the latest version - 1.2.3 - at time of writing): easy_install MySQL-python

Test it:

>>> import MySQLdb

For me, that solved the problem. No need to edit _mysql.c (as advised for MySQL-python 1.2.2) or mess with any other settings.

Should you need them (if the above fails, or if you really want to try a 64-bit install), here are some of the links used while researching this:

But note this:

"if you go 64, then you will have to recompile every single thing that interacts with python, mysql and apache to work as a 64 bit arch program"

And for anyone on Snow Leopard:

Finally, the MacPython 2.7 installer now covers 64 bit. See this post for the differences between running 64 and/or 32 bit.

OTHER TIPS

I found the following steps (with Snow Leopard) got me 64 bit MySQL and 64 bit Python (on an early 2011 Macbook Pro)

  1. Install Xcode
  2. Install 64 bit MySQL
  3. Install latest python

  4. Install easy_install

    Download and install appropriate egg from: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools and then run the shell script (in my case …)
    sudo sh setuptools-0.6c11-py2.6.egg

  5. Install the MySQLdb python library

    export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin/
    sudo easy_install MySQL-python

  6. Change ~/.profile to include the following lines:

    export VERSIONER_PYTHON_PREFER_32_BIT=no
    export VERSIONER_PYTHON_PREFER_64_BIT=yes

  7. Make the libmysqlclient.18.dylib available

    sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib

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