Step 1: Satisfy The Dependencies

pysqlite requires a valid combination of the dependencies in the list below.

Detailed instructions on how to install each dependency are beyond the scope of this document; consult the dependency distributor for installation instructions.

Dependencies:

1. Operating System and C Compiler - one of:
   • Linux/FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD and GCC
   • Other POSIX-compliant operating system and a C compiler
   • [Compilation on Windows will be described in a later version of this document]
2. SQLite:
   • SQLite version 3.1 or later.
3. Python:
   • Python 2.3 or later

Step 2: Compile pysqlite

Once you have successfully installed the dependencies, you may proceed with the installation of pysqlite itself.

pysqlite has full support for the distutils, the standard facility for Python package distribution and installation. Full instructions for using the distutils are available in this section of the Python documentation, but you can skip them unless you have an otherwise insoluble problem.

Open a command prompt, change to the directory where you decompressed the pysqlite source distribution, and type:

python setup.py build

The installation script, setup.py, will attempt to automatically detect the information needed by the C compiler; then it will invoke the distutils to perform the actual compilation. If you installed automatic distributions of the dependencies that place themselves in standard locations (on UNIX-style operating systems), the compilation should proceed without incident.

Otherwise you will have to customize the build process. That's what the file setup.cfg is meant for. It's contains a few lines that you can customize so your C compiler will find the library and header files and you can also do a few other tweaks, like build pysqlite in debug mode.

After you've customized setup.cfg apprporiately, try invoking python setup.py build again.

If setup.py raises no errors and its output concludes with something like "Creating library...", then you are ready to proceed to the next step.

If you receive an error message from the compiler, then try to look at the first error it reports. Other errors will most likely be aftereffects from the first error (like not finding the sqlite3.h header file).

Step 3: Install pysqlite

During this step, the setup script moves the pysqlite2 package (including the newly compiled C extension) to the standard package directory of your Python installation so that Python will be able to import pysqlite2.dbapi2 and pysqlite2.test.

In addition to the Python code and shared library files actually used by the Python interpreter, the setup script typically installs some supporting files, such as documentation. Depending on your system configuration, these supporting files may be placed in the same directory or a different directory from the files used by the Python interpreter.

Run the following command:

python setup.py install

The setup script will install pysqlite, listing each file it installs.

Errors during this step are rare because compilation (the finicky part of this process) has already taken place; installation is really just a matter of copying files. However, there will be file system permission errors if the Python installation directory is not writable by the user running the setup script. If you encounter such an error, try one of the following:

• Log in as a user who has the required file system permissions and repeat the installation step.
• Manually copy the directory build/lib.platform-pyver/pysqlite2 (which contains the Python modules and compiled library files created during the compilation step) to a directory in your PYTHONPATH. This approach will not install the supporting files, but they are for the benefit of the programmer rather than the Python interpreter anyway.

Step 4: Test Your pysqlite Installation

Switch to a directory other than the temporary directory into which you decompressed the source distribution (to avoid conflict between the copy of pysqlite in that directory and the copy placed under the standard Python site-packages directory), then run the pysqlite test suite by starting a Python interpreter for the Python version you installed pysqlite for and entering the following:

>>> from pysqlite2 import test
>>> test.test()
.....................................................................................................
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 101 tests in 0.182s

If the test suite runs without any errors, you are finished.

You should not encounter any errors at this stage since you have already completed the compilation and installation steps successfully. If you do, please report them to the pysqlite bug tracker or the pysqlite mailing list.