1. Compiling _mysqlmodule.so

Here are some common errors that happen during the build. This section covers UNIX/Linux problems only, as I don't do Windows. .so is a dynamically loading library on Linux and most other UNIX variants; a few use extensions other than .so. Windows probably uses .dll.

1.1 ImportError: libmysqlclient.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

You have dynamic MySQL libraries, and by default, your compiler links _mysqlmodule.so against these, but these are not on your loader path when you start Python. You have two basic options:

1. Modify the compiler flags in Setup so that it links against the static library. Probably -static will do this for gcc/egcs; YMMV for other C compilers.
2. Change your system environment so that the MySQL libraries are on your loader path. With Linux, you can modify /etc/ld.so.conf (see man ldconfig for more details) or you can add to or create the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable before starting Python, i.e.

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   LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/mysql/libs python ... # Bourne-ish shell
   

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1.2 ImportError: ./_mysqlmodule.so: undefined symbol: PyLong_FromUnsignedLongLong

PyLong_FromUnsignedLongLong() first appears in Python 1.5.2, so you are linking against an earlier version. You may also have more than one version installed. Get Python 1.5.2 from your vendor or python.org.

1.3 ImportError: ./_mysqlmodule.so: undefined symbol: uncompress

1.4 ./_mysqlmodule.c:33: mysql.h: No such file or directory

It seems that MySQL-3.23 client libraries require libz for gzip compression. Add -lz to the link line in Setup.

The include path (-I) to your MySQL include files is wrong; modify Setup. OR: You don't have the MySQL development stuff loaded. If you are using the Red Hat RPMs, you need the MySQL-devel RPM to compile _mysqlmodule.so. However, if you link against the static MySQL libraries (see above), you can install _mysqlmodule.so on a system that does not have the MySQL client libraries (libmysqlclient).

1.5 I'm using Windows...

Say no more.

There is a compile.py script which supposedly gets the job done for Windows, but I can't test it.

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