How to Fix EnvironmentError: Mysql_config Not Found in Python

1. Fix the EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found in Python
2. Install the MySQL Connector in Python

When installing the MySQL package through Python, there will be instances where we thought a clean installation was successful and may be riddled with errors when we try to use it, such as the EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found.

This scenario usually happens when we install the said package within a directory or a virtual environment where it doesn’t correctly see the configuration file due to symbolic mismatch or corruption on the directory level.

This article will discuss how we can install and troubleshoot our MySQL Python installation and introduce a great alternative to the said package.

Fix the EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found in Python

Here are some ways to troubleshoot and fresh install a MySQL Python installation that we can run on the operating system level.

Windows

With Windows operating systems, we can do this through the GUI method by downloading the package on the MySQL website that we can find through this link.

Launch the wizard and follow the prompts in the screens it presents to install in the location of your choice.

Debian/Ubuntu

If your MySQL system is currently on a Debian or Ubuntu system, open your terminal and use the following snippet below.

sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev

For recent versions of Debian or Ubuntu (as of 2018), use the following snippet below.

sudo apt install default-libmysqlclient-dev

If an error still occurs while using the snippets above, you may try freshly installing the MySQL package with the following code.

sudo apt-get install python-mysqldb

Ensure you have adequate sudo access when running the commands above.

CentOS

If we are running CentOS, we can replace the above commands with yum instead of apt since CentOS uses the yum install package.

Open the terminal and run the following snippet below.

sudo yum install python-mysql

macOS

If we are on a macOS, we can freshly install MySQL globally using the command below.

brew install mysql

Next, we can export the environment path like the following.

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin

Then, install MySQL Python globally or in your virtual environment. It is also worth noting that Mac systems can have both Python versions 2 & 3 globally.

pip install MySQL-Python
pip3 install MySQL-Python

Install the MySQL Connector in Python

As an alternative, the MySQL connector is an out-of-the-box alternative to the MySQL Python installation. To install, open your terminal or Python console via PyPip and run the following snippet below.

pip install mysql-connector-python

To read more on installing the MySQL connector on different operating systems, you may refer to the MySQL official developer documentation that can be found here.