Homebrew and Python

Python is a powerful and beautiful interpreted language.

Overview

This page describes how Python is handled in Homebrew.

Homebrew should work with any CPython, including the OS X system Python.

Homebrew provides formulae to brew a more up-to-date Python 2.7.x (and 3.x).

Important: If you choose to install a Python which isn't either of these two (system Python or brewed Python), the Homebrew team can only provide limited support.

Python 2.x or Python 3.x

Homebrew provides a formula for Python 2.7.x and one for Python 3.x. They don't conflict, so they can both be installed. The executable python will always point to the 2.x and python3 to the 3.x version.

(Wondering which one to choose?)

Setuptools, Pip, etc.

The Python formula installs pip and Setuptools.

Setuptools can be updated via Pip, without having to re-brew Python:

pip install --upgrade setuptools

Similarly, Pip can be used to upgrade itself via:

pip install --upgrade pip

Note on pip install --user

The normal pip install --user is disabled for brewed Python. This is because of a bug in distutils, because Homebrew writes a distutils.cfg which sets the package prefix.

A possible workaround (which puts executable scripts in ~/Library/Python/<X>.<Y>/bin) is:

pip install --user --install-option="--prefix=" <package-name>

You can make this "empty prefix" the default by adding a ~/.pydistutils.cfg file with the following contents:

[install]
prefix=

site-packages and the PYTHONPATH

The site-packages is a directory that contains Python modules (especially bindings installed by other formulae). Homebrew creates it here:

$(brew --prefix)/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages

So, for brewed Python 2.7.x, you'll find it at /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages.

A brewed Python 2.7 also searches for modules in:

• /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages
• ~/Library/Python/2.7/lib/python/site-packages

Homebrew's site-packages directory is first created if (1) any Homebrew formula with Python bindings are installed, or (2) upon brew install python. A brewed Python already knows about its location.

Why here?

The reasoning for this location is to preserve your modules between (minor) upgrades or re-installations of Python. Additionally, Homebrew has a strict policy never to write stuff outside of the brew --prefix, so we don't spam your system.

Homebrew-provided Python bindings

Some formulae provide python bindings. Sometimes a --with-python or --with-python3 option has to be passed to brew install in order to build the python bindings. (Check with brew options <formula>.)

If you have a brewed python, then the bindings are installed for that one. But if you don't have a brewed Python, Homebrew uses the first python (and python-config) in your PATH. (Check with which python.

Warning! Python may crash (see Common Issues) if you import <module> from a different python interpreter than the one used during brew install <formula_with_python_bindings>. Therefore, if you decide to switch between brewed and system pythons, then re-‍install all formulae with python bindings (such as pyside, wxwidgets, pygtk, pygobject, opencv, vtk, and boost…to name just a few).

Policy for non-brewed Python bindings

These should be installed via pip install <x>. To discover, you can use pip search or http://pypi.python.org/pypi. (Note: System Python does not provide pip. Simply easy_install pip to fix that.)

Brewed Python modules

For brewed Python, modules installed with pip or python setup.py install will be installed to $(brew --prefix)/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages directory (explained above). Executable python scripts will be in $(brew --prefix)/bin. (To better conform to standard behavior, brew no longer puts Python scripts into share/python/$(brew --prefix).)

Further, a brewed Python (or more precisely distutils) knows which compiler flags to set in order to build bindings for software installed in Homebrew (Find the includes, the libs, the compiler and so forth). In contrast to that, system's Python does not know about the the correct flags, so you may need to

CFLAGS=-I$(brew --prefix)/include LDFLAGS=-L$(brew --prefix)/lib pip install <package>.

Virtualenv

Brewed Python works nicely with Virtualenv.

WARNING: When you brew install formulae that provide Python bindings, you should not be in an active virtual environment.

Activate the virtualenv after you've brewed, or brew in a fresh Terminal window. Homebrew will still install Python modules into Homebrew's site-packages and not into the virtual environment's site-package.

Virtualenv has a switch to allow "global" (i.e. Homebrew's) site-packages to be accessible from within the virtualenv.

Creating a formulae with nice Python bindings

You can add the following :special dependency to the formula:

depends_on :python

This assures that Homebrew looks for a suitable Python 2 and sets up PATH accordingly (as well as a few other things; see below). Omitting this line may lead to error messages like Python.h not found.

To allow the user to opt-out (via --without-python):

depends_on :python => :recommended

To allow the user to opt-in (via --with-python3 for Python3):

depends_on :python3 => :optional

These options are automatically generated. In the formula you can check via build.with? 'python' what the user has decided.

If you need to specify that specific Python modules (rather than just Python itself) are needed:

depends_on 'numpy' => :python

If the software provides a setup.py

Usually this line will do the trick:

system "python", "setup.py", "--prefix=#{prefix}"

The --prefix=#{prefix} part is to ensure that Python bindings are installed into the Cellar for that specific formula in:

$(brew --prefix)/Cellar/<formula>/<version>/lib/python2.7/site-packages

When brew link is run (automatically at the end of brew install), the Python modules should be linked into $(brew --prefix)/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages, and the scripts should go into $(brew --prefix)/bin. This enables brew to unlink/link/uninstall cleanly.

If the setup.py is older, it may need two additional arguments to avoid writing an easy-install.pth file (which will conflict with the easy-install.pth already installed by pip/setuptools). So, if you get a brew link problem mentioning this file, add this to the setup.py args:

"--single-version-externally-managed", "--record=installed.txt"

If the formula uses configure/make

Generally, the ./configure files provided by software Homebrew installs can find python or python-config (and/or look at the PYTHON var). Both are set up by Homebrew during brewing.

Often, a --with-python or similar flag can be given to configure. Check with ./configure --help.

If the configure and make scripts do not want to install into the Cellar, one option is to:

1. Call ./configure --without-python (or a similar named option)
2. cd into the directory containing the Python bindings
3. Call setup.py explicitly (as described above)

Sometimes we have to inreplace a Makefile to use our prefix for the python bindings. (inreplace is one of Homebrew's helper methods, which greps and edits text files on-the-fly.)

Technical details

Formula authors necessarily don't need to read this.

Adding depends_on :python triggers the following actions:

• The user PATH (the original PATH, not the superenv PATH) is searched for a suitable python executable (python3 for 3.x).
• The PYTHONPATH is set (internally only), so non-brewed Python do find brewed python modules.