Getting error when trying to install python

Question

I have downloaded python-3.6.1.tar.xz. then I extracted it. There is a file README.rst. this is the instruction file. and has the instruction how to install.

On Unix, Li

Answer 1

zipimport.ZipImportError: can't decompress data; zlib not available

You should install zlib1g-dev and change your configure step like this:

./configure --with-zlib=/usr/include

Now, try this:

 make clean
 apt-get install zlib1g-dev
 ./configure --with-zlib=/usr/include
 ...

You can read more in Configure and compile Python with Zlib

Answer 2

When I was trying to install Python 3.7.3 through pyenv, I got this same error. It was solved by ensuring that I had the prerequisites to my operating system, with the following:

sudo apt-get install -y make build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev \
libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget curl llvm libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev \
xz-utils tk-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev python-openssl git

I found this in pyenv Common build problems, thanks to agibalov.

Answer 3

On MacOS the issue is often that an XCode update has removed Zlib. Running the following will solve it:

xcode-select --install