How to (finally) Install PyCURL on MacOS
In this guide, I'm showing you a complete solution on how to install pycurl on macOS. Yes, that includes solving those pesky errors on mac.
Every few months, I find myself installing pycurl as part of one project or another on my Macbook and experiencing installation failures. I used to spend a lot of time googling what was wrong and realizing how to fix it. And now, finally, I found the source of all those Stack Overflow half-answers: Brew.
How to install Brew on Mac
Brew is a package manager for MacOS computers. According to brew's official website, you need to run this command to install brew:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"How to Install Pycurl on MacOS
Step 1: open a terminal and run brew info openssl
brew install openssl before retrying the above command.You should see this output in your terminal.
Step 2: export env variables as suggested.
Export the suggested compilations environment variables in the same terminal where you attempt to install pycurl (works in your poetry shell, too, for those who use that package manager). This includes the update to your PATH and the compiler flags.
The reason is that the LDFLAGS and CPPFLAGS env variables are not automatically set on the system because macOS automatically provides LibreSSL. And in addition, the PATH doesn’t include it either in favor of LibreSSL. Hence, pycurl fails to find OpenSSL when trying to install it.
And that's it! Your pycurl installation should work as expected.
Conclusion
Installing pycurl on mac requires some info from brew about your OpenSSL installation. Once you output that information and export it as env variables, you should be able to install pycurl with no problems on your macOS.
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Let me know in the comments below if you have any other questions!