I keep encountering a "failure to build wheels" message when trying to pip install mysqlclient?

Question

I'm running Python 3.12 and have mySQL 8.0. I'm working on the Coursera course for professional development (I'm not currently in tech or any adjacent field. I only have the tiniest amount of HTML and CSS experience from my tumblr days). I've extended my deadline three times now and I'm so frustrated I might wipe my whole computer and start over.

Here's my log:

 Downloading mysqlclient-2.2.0.tar.gz (89 kB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 89.5/89.5 kB 211.5 kB/s eta 0:00:00
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Installing backend dependencies ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done
Building wheels for collected packages: mysqlclient
  Building wheel for mysqlclient (pyproject.toml) ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error

  × Building wheel for mysqlclient (pyproject.toml) did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [46 lines of output]
      # Options for building extention module:
        library_dirs: ['C:/mariadb-connector\\lib\\mariadb', 'C:/mariadb-connector\\lib']
        libraries: ['kernel32', 'advapi32', 'wsock32', 'shlwapi', 'Ws2_32', 'crypt32', 'secur32', 'bcrypt', 'mariadbclient']
        extra_link_args: ['/MANIFEST']
        include_dirs: ['C:/mariadb-connector\\include\\mariadb', 'C:/mariadb-connector\\include']
        extra_objects: []
        define_macros: [('version_info', (2, 2, 0, 'final', 0)), ('__version__', '2.2.0')]
      running bdist_wheel
      running build
      running build_py
      creating build
      creating build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312
      creating build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb
      copying src\MySQLdb\connections.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb
      copying src\MySQLdb\converters.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb
      copying src\MySQLdb\cursors.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb
      copying src\MySQLdb\release.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb
      copying src\MySQLdb\times.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb
      copying src\MySQLdb\_exceptions.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb
      copying src\MySQLdb\__init__.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb
      creating build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb\constants   
      copying src\MySQLdb\constants\CLIENT.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb\constants
      copying src\MySQLdb\constants\CR.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb\constants
      copying src\MySQLdb\constants\ER.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb\constants
      copying src\MySQLdb\constants\FIELD_TYPE.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb\constants
      copying src\MySQLdb\constants\FLAG.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb\constants
      copying src\MySQLdb\constants\__init__.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb\constants
      running egg_info
      writing src\mysqlclient.egg-info\PKG-INFO
      writing dependency_links to src\mysqlclient.egg-info\dependency_links.txt
      writing top-level names to src\mysqlclient.egg-info\top_level.txt
      reading manifest file 'src\mysqlclient.egg-info\SOURCES.txt' 
      reading manifest template 'MANIFEST.in'
      adding license file 'LICENSE'
      writing manifest file 'src\mysqlclient.egg-info\SOURCES.txt' 
      copying src\MySQLdb\_mysql.c -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-312\MySQLdb
      running build_ext
      building 'MySQLdb._mysql' extension
      creating build\temp.win-amd64-cpython-312
      creating build\temp.win-amd64-cpython-312\Release
      creating build\temp.win-amd64-cpython-312\Release\src        
      creating build\temp.win-amd64-cpython-312\Release\src\MySQLdb
      "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.29.30133\bin\HostX86\x64\cl.exe" /c /nologo /O2 /W3 /GL /DNDEBUG /MD "-Dversion_info=(2, 2, 0, 'final', 0)" -D__version__=2.2.0 -IC:/mariadb-connector\include\mariadb -IC:/mariadb-connector\include -Ic:\Users\mikai\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\include -Ic:\Users\mikai\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Include "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.29.30133\include" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\ucrt" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\shared" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\um" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\winrt" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\cppwinrt" /Tcsrc/MySQLdb/_mysql.c /Fobuild\temp.win-amd64-cpython-312\Release\src/MySQLdb/_mysql.obj
      _mysql.c
      src/MySQLdb/_mysql.c(29): fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'mysql.h': No such file or directory
      error: command 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\BuildTools\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.29.30133\\bin\\HostX86\\x64\\cl.exe' failed with exit code 2
      [end of output]

  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
  ERROR: Failed building wheel for mysqlclient
Failed to build mysqlclient
ERROR: Could not build wheels for mysqlclient, which is required to install pyproject.toml-based projects```


I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling what feels like a thousand times. I've checked my path and I'm not sure but I don't think there's anything wrong there. I've been trying to solve this and finish my course for weeks but my brain is not up to the task. Can someone smarter than me please explain what I need to do like I'm five? 

Thanks in advance. 

Answer 1

Your error code contain that "Cannot open include file: 'mysql.h'". So, I wonder you should install python3.12-dev and mysqlclient.

It is similar error at another stackoverflow question

Answer 2

I was getting the same error message and I've tried it all before, downloading manually a wheel, downloading again the Microsoft Visual C++

It worked for me run the command:

pip install mysql-connector-python

Instead of:

pip install mysqlclient

So I was able to run my project using Mysql with no problems ;>