How do you install lxml on OS X Leopard without using MacPorts or Fink?

Question

I\'ve tried this and run in to problems a bunch of times in the past. Does anyone have a recipe for installing lxml on OS X without MacPorts or Fink that definitely works?<

Answer 1

This worked for me on 10.8.5

1. Install Xcode from Mac App Store
2. Xcode -> Preferences -> Downloads -> Command Line Tools
3. Install homebrew using
4. ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"
5. brew install libxml2
6. sudo easy_install lxml

This comprises suggestions from:

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/6545556/300224
• https://stackoverflow.com/a/5785013/300224
• https://stackoverflow.com/a/9403589

But I wanted to compile it into one answer rather than leave comments everywhere

Answer 2

Easy_install can work using this:

STATIC_DEPS=true easy_install 'lxml>=2.2beta4'

you may then need to run, depending on permissions;

STATIC_DEPS=true sudo easy_install 'lxml>=2.2beta4'

see http://muffinresearch.co.uk/archives/2009/03/05/install-lxml-on-osx/

Answer 3

I compile it in /usr/local without any issues whatsoever.

Install Python, libxml2, libxslt and then lxml. You might need setuptools installed too.