Gensim with MinGW

Question

I seem to be one of the many people struggling to install gensim on windows. I have trawled through countless forums but the errors poster there never appear to match my errors. So hopefully someone can point me in the right direction!

I am running Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard 64-bit. I have installed MinGW & Anaconda 2.2.0 (64-bit), which comes with Python 2.7.9.

I have added a file distutils.cfg into C:\Users\Sam\Anaconda\Lib\distutils with the contents:

[build]
compiler=mingw32

I have added C:\MinGW\bin to my Environment variables.

If I install gensim using pip I do not get any errors, until I try to run Word2Vec when I get the error:

C:\Users\sam.passmore\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\gensim\models\word2vec.py:459: UserWarning: C extension com
pilation failed, training will be slow. Install a C compiler and reinstall gensim for fast training.

So I have uninstalled gensim and tried to re-install using the mingw32 compiler, but this gives me this error:

python setup.py build --compiler=mingw32
c:\users\sam.passmore\appdata\local\continuum\anaconda\lib\site-packages\setuptools-14.3-py2.7.egg\setuptools\dist.py:282: UserWarni
ng: Normalizing '0.11.1-1' to '0.11.1.post1'
running build
running build_ext
building 'gensim.models.word2vec_inner' extension
C:\MinGW\bin\gcc.exe -DMS_WIN64 -mdll -O -Wall -Igensim\models -IC:\Users\sam.passmore\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\include -IC:
\Users\sam.passmore\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\PC -IC:\Users\sam.passmore\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\n
umpy\core\include -c ./gensim/models/word2vec_inner.c -o build\temp.win-amd64-2.7\Release\.\gensim\models\word2vec_inner.o
gcc: error: ./gensim/models/word2vec_inner.c: No such file or directory
gcc: fatal error: no input files
compilation terminated.
command 'C:\\MinGW\\bin\\gcc.exe' failed with exit status 1
setup.py:82: UserWarning:
********************************************************************
WARNING: %s could not
be compiled. No C extensions are essential for gensim to run,
although they do result in significant speed improvements for some modules.
%s

Here are some hints for popular operating systems:

If you are seeing this message on Linux you probably need to
install GCC and/or the Python development package for your
version of Python.

Debian and Ubuntu users should issue the following command:

    $ sudo apt-get install build-essential python-dev

RedHat, CentOS, and Fedora users should issue the following command:

    $ sudo yum install gcc python-devel

If you are seeing this message on OSX please read the documentation
here:

http://api.mongodb.org/python/current/installation.html#osx
********************************************************************
The gensim.models.word2vec_inner extension moduleThe output above this warning shows how the compilation failed.
  "The output above this warning shows how the compilation failed.")
building 'gensim.models.doc2vec_inner' extension
C:\MinGW\bin\gcc.exe -DMS_WIN64 -mdll -O -Wall -Igensim\models -IC:\Users\sam.passmore\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\include -IC:
\Users\sam.passmore\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\PC -IC:\Users\sam.passmore\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\n
umpy\core\include -c ./gensim/models/doc2vec_inner.c -o build\temp.win-amd64-2.7\Release\.\gensim\models\doc2vec_inner.o
gcc: error: ./gensim/models/doc2vec_inner.c: No such file or directory
gcc: fatal error: no input files
compilation terminated.
command 'C:\\MinGW\\bin\\gcc.exe' failed with exit status 1
setup.py:82: UserWarning:
********************************************************************
WARNING: %s could not
be compiled. No C extensions are essential for gensim to run,
although they do result in significant speed improvements for some modules.
%s

Here are some hints for popular operating systems:

If you are seeing this message on Linux you probably need to
install GCC and/or the Python development package for your
version of Python.

Debian and Ubuntu users should issue the following command:

    $ sudo apt-get install build-essential python-dev

RedHat, CentOS, and Fedora users should issue the following command:

    $ sudo yum install gcc python-devel

If you are seeing this message on OSX please read the documentation
here:

http://api.mongodb.org/python/current/installation.html#osx
********************************************************************
The gensim.models.doc2vec_inner extension moduleThe output above this warning shows how the compilation failed.
  "The output above this warning shows how the compilation failed."

I have exhausted all options I can think of or find, so if anyone could give some advice it would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

I managed to solve this after using conda install for gensim, rather than pip.

conda install gensim

I am not sure what other steps I have included above have contributed to the answer, but this was the last thing I did before I no longer was getting the 'Install a C compiler and reinstall gensim for fast training.' message.

During my research in trying to solve this problem I saw that the most common methods were adding the lines

[build]
compiler=mingw32

to the distutils.cfg file as well as ensuring MinGW is in your path. Also ensuring that the MinGW bit version is the same as your python version.