Installing MySQL-python causes command 'clang' failed with exit status 1 on Mac OS 10.13.15

Question

I have installed tools via xcode-select --install but still show the following error while doing pip install MySQL-python

Building wheels for collected packages: MySQL-python
  Running setup.py bdist_wheel for MySQL-python ... error
  Complete output from command /Users/vaibhavmule/Envs/switchidea/bin/python2.7 -u -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='/private/var/folders/p6/0v0bflxn3t399_qdpnm2z7hc0000gn/T/pip-install-SD9Cgh/MySQL-python/setup.py';f=getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('\r\n', '\n');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, 'exec'))" bdist_wheel -d /private/var/folders/p6/0v0bflxn3t399_qdpnm2z7hc0000gn/T/pip-wheel-g6C50k --python-tag cp27:
  running bdist_wheel
  running build
  running build_py
  creating build
  creating build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7
  copying _mysql_exceptions.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7
  creating build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/__init__.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/converters.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/connections.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/cursors.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/release.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
  copying MySQLdb/times.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
  creating build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/__init__.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/CR.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/FIELD_TYPE.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/ER.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/FLAG.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/REFRESH.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
  copying MySQLdb/constants/CLIENT.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
  running build_ext
  building '_mysql' extension
  creating build/temp.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7
  clang -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Dversion_info=(1,2,3,'final',0) -D__version__=1.2.3 -I/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/8.0.11/include/mysql -I/usr/local/Cellar/python@2/2.7.15_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -c _mysql.c -o build/temp.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/_mysql.o
  _mysql.c:36:10: fatal error: 'my_config.h' file not found
  #include "my_config.h"
           ^~~~~~~~~~~~~
  1 error generated.
  error: command 'clang' failed with exit status 1

  ----------------------------------------
  Failed building wheel for MySQL-python
  Running setup.py clean for MySQL-python
Failed to build MySQL-python
django-model-utils 3.0.0 has requirement Django>=1.8, but you'll have django 1.6.7 which is incompatible.
faker 0.8.16 has requirement six>=1.10, but you'll have six 1.6.1 which is incompatible.
django-phonenumber-field 2.0.0 has requirement Django>=1.11, but you'll have django 1.6.7 which is incompatible.
Installing collected packages: MySQL-python, opbeat, olefile, Pillow, pyzmq, contextlib2, raven, simplejson, South, sqlparse, wheel, django-sendfile, httplib2, pytz, twilio, phonenumberslite, babel, django-phonenumber-field, django-twilio, text-unidecode, python-dateutil, Faker, factory-boy, waitress, beautifulsoup4, WebOb, webtest, django-webtest, coverage
  Running setup.py install for MySQL-python ... error
    Complete output from command /Users/vaibhavmule/Envs/switchidea/bin/python2.7 -u -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='/private/var/folders/p6/0v0bflxn3t399_qdpnm2z7hc0000gn/T/pip-install-SD9Cgh/MySQL-python/setup.py';f=getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('\r\n', '\n');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, 'exec'))" install --record /private/var/folders/p6/0v0bflxn3t399_qdpnm2z7hc0000gn/T/pip-record-ihy3we/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile --install-headers /Users/vaibhavmule/Envs/switchidea/bin/../include/site/python2.7/MySQL-python:
    running install
    running build
    running build_py
    creating build
    creating build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7
    copying _mysql_exceptions.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7
    creating build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/__init__.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/converters.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/connections.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/cursors.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/release.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
    copying MySQLdb/times.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb
    creating build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/__init__.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/CR.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/FIELD_TYPE.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/ER.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/FLAG.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/REFRESH.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
    copying MySQLdb/constants/CLIENT.py -> build/lib.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/MySQLdb/constants
    running build_ext
    building '_mysql' extension
    creating build/temp.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7
    clang -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Dversion_info=(1,2,3,'final',0) -D__version__=1.2.3 -I/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/8.0.11/include/mysql -I/usr/local/Cellar/python@2/2.7.15_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -c _mysql.c -o build/temp.macosx-10.13-x86_64-2.7/_mysql.o
    _mysql.c:36:10: fatal error: 'my_config.h' file not found
    #include "my_config.h"
             ^~~~~~~~~~~~~
    1 error generated.
    error: command 'clang' failed with exit status 1

    ----------------------------------------
Command "/Users/vaibhavmule/Envs/switchidea/bin/python2.7 -u -c "import 
setuptools, tokenize;__file__='/private/var/folders/p6/0v0bflxn3t399_qdpnm2z7hc0000gn/T/pip-install-SD9Cgh/MySQL-python/setup.py';f=getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('\r\n', '\n');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, 'exec'))" install --record /private/var/folders/p6/0v0bflxn3t399_qdpnm2z7hc0000gn/T/pip-record-ihy3we/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile --install-headers /Users/vaibhavmule/Envs/switchidea/bin/../include/site/python2.7/MySQL-python" failed with error code 1 in /private/var/folders/p6/0v0bflxn3t399_qdpnm2z7hc0000gn/T/pip-install-SD9Cgh/MySQL-python/

Answer 1

I just resolved this exact issue when running Ansible's mysql_user module. The answer here helped tip me off to a solution. I also needed MySQL-python from pip, which also broke in this process, so I've added the extra steps.

Steps to resolve:

1. brew unlink mysql # only if installed, causes the next step to fail
2. brew install mysql-connector-c
3. locate mysql_config file with which (mysql_config)

4. edit the mysql_config file, under # Create options change this:

   libs="$libs -l "

   to this:

   libs="$libs -lmysqlclient -lssl -lcrypto"

   if using vim, :wq! to save the read-only file

5. Now the install should run successfully

   pip install mysqlclient

6. Adding this separately, as it's similar but not directly related to the initial question

   pip install MySQL-python

7. Fix mysql brew formula, if it was unlinked in the first step.

   brew unlink mysql-connector-c

   brew link mysql