Access separate MySQL server from my machine using Python - how? [Mac OS X] - mysql

Question

Long story short - I am writing Selenium webdriver Python tests that need to access an external server's MySQL database. I tried installing mysqldb using sudo easy_install MYSQL-python, but I got this message:
EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found` (full (long) traceback below).
I am kind of new to a Python, so I don't fully understand this, but is it saying that I need to have MySQL installed on my local machine? If so, how would I do that, and since I don't need it, is there another way you can recommend? Also, I am running a Mac with Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9).
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/easy_install-2.7", line 10, in <module>
load_entry_point('setuptools==0.6c12dev-r88846', 'console_scripts', 'easy_install')()
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 1712, in main
with_ei_usage(lambda:
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 1700, in with_ei_usage
return f()
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 1716, in <lambda>
distclass=DistributionWithoutHelpCommands, **kw
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/core.py", line 152, in setup
dist.run_commands()
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py", line 953, in run_commands
self.run_command(cmd)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py", line 972, in run_command
cmd_obj.run()
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 211, in run
self.easy_install(spec, not self.no_deps)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 446, in easy_install
return self.install_item(spec, dist.location, tmpdir, deps)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 476, in install_item
dists = self.install_eggs(spec, download, tmpdir)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 655, in install_eggs
return self.build_and_install(setup_script, setup_base)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 930, in build_and_install
self.run_setup(setup_script, setup_base, args)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 919, in run_setup
run_setup(setup_script, args)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/sandbox.py", line 62, in run_setup
lambda: execfile(
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/sandbox.py", line 105, in run
return func()
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/setuptools/sandbox.py", line 64, in <lambda>
{'__file__':setup_script, '__name__':'__main__'}
File "setup.py", line 18, in <module>
File "/tmp/easy_install-Lk4VVX/MySQL-python-1.2.4/setup_posix.py", line 43, in get_config
File "/tmp/easy_install-Lk4VVX/MySQL-python-1.2.4/setup_posix.py", line 25, in mysql_config
EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found

Answer 1

The error message that you're facing is due to the lack of headers on your machine. That is, you're missing some libraries.
If you're on a Debian-based Linux OS, I'd suggest you use the package provided through aptitude:
sudo apt-get install python-mysqldb
On a side note, drop easy install and start using pip.
sudo apt-get install python-pip
If you want to install this module only with pip/another Python dependency manager you'll need to have several tools/libraries installed on your machine in order to build it:
sudo apt-get install python-dev libmysqlclient-dev
sudo pip install MySQL-python