Installing lxml

===============

.. contents:: :depth: 1

..

1 Where to get it

2 Requirements

3 Installation

4 Building lxml from dev sources

5 Using lxml with python-libxml2

6 Source builds on MS Windows

7 Source builds on MacOS-X

Where to get it

---------------

lxml is generally distributed through PyPI_.

.. _PyPI: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/lxml

Most **Linux** platforms come with some version of lxml readily

packaged, usually named ``python-lxml`` for the Python 2.x version

and ``python3-lxml`` for Python 3.x. If you can use that version,

the quickest way to install lxml is to use the system package

manager, e.g. ``apt-get`` on Debian/Ubuntu::

sudo apt-get install python3-lxml

For **MacOS-X**, a `macport <http://macports.org/>`_ of lxml is available.

Try something like

::

sudo port install py39-lxml

To install a newer version or to install lxml on other systems,

see below.

Requirements

------------

You need Python 3.9+ for lxml 7.0 and later.

You need Python 3.8+ for lxml 6.0 and later.

You need Python 3.6+ for lxml 5.0 and later.

lxml versions before 5.0 support Python 2.7 and 3.6+.

Unless you are using a static binary distribution (e.g. from a

Windows binary installer), lxml requires libxml2 and libxslt to

be installed, in particular:

* `libxml2 <http://xmlsoft.org/>`_ version 2.9.2 or later.

* `libxslt <http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT/>`_ version 1.1.27 or later.

* We recommend libxslt 1.1.28 or later.

Newer versions generally contain fewer bugs and are therefore

recommended. XML Schema support is also still worked on in libxml2,

so newer versions will give you better compliance with the W3C spec.

To install the required development packages of these dependencies

on Linux systems, use your distribution specific installation tool,

e.g. apt-get on Debian/Ubuntu::

sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev libxslt-dev python-dev

For Debian based systems, it should be enough to install the known

build dependencies of the provided lxml package, e.g.

::

sudo apt-get build-dep python3-lxml

Installation

------------

If your system does not provide binary packages or you want to install

a newer version, the best way is to get the pip_ package management tool

(or use a `virtualenv <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv>`_) and

run the following::

pip install lxml

If you are not using pip in a virtualenv and want to install lxml globally

instead, you have to run the above command as admin, e.g. on Linux::

sudo pip install lxml

To install a specific version, either download the distribution

manually and let pip install that, or pass the desired version

to pip::

pip install lxml==5.0.0

.. _pip: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pip

To speed up the build in test environments, e.g. on a continuous

integration server, disable the C compiler optimisations by setting

the ``CFLAGS`` environment variable::

CFLAGS="-O0" pip install lxml

(The option reads "minus Oh Zero", i.e. zero optimisations.)

MS Windows

..........

For MS Windows, we try to provide binary wheels with reasonably up-to-date

libraries, although you might still want to take a look at the related

`FAQ entry <FAQ.html#where-are-the-binary-builds>`_.

Since it is generally difficult to build software on Windows, the library

versions (libxml2, libxslt, libiconv, zlib) might not always be at the

same version level as the builds on Linux or macOS. This usually means

that the `WinLibs project <https://github.com/orgs/winlibs>`_

has not updated their repositories yet. If you need a more recent version,

please file a ticket on their side to update it.

Linux

.....

On Linux (and most other well-behaved operating systems), ``pip`` will

manage to build the source distribution as long as libxml2 and libxslt

are properly installed, including development packages, i.e. header files,

etc. See the requirements section above and use your system package

management tool to look for packages like ``libxml2-dev`` or

``libxslt-devel``. If the build fails, make sure they are installed.

Alternatively, setting ``STATIC_DEPS=true`` will download and build

both libraries automatically in their latest version, e.g.

``STATIC_DEPS=true pip install lxml``.

MacOS-X

.......

On MacOS-X, we provide binary wheels ("universal2" for Python 3.9+),

so just use::

sudo pip3 install lxml

To build the source distribution, use the following and

make sure you have a working Internet connection, as this will

download libxml2 and libxslt in order to build them::

STATIC_DEPS=true sudo pip install lxml

Building lxml from dev sources

------------------------------

If you want to build lxml from the GitHub repository, you should read

`how to build lxml from source`_ (or the file ``doc/build.txt`` in the

source tree). Building from developer sources or from modified

distribution sources requires Cython_ to translate the lxml sources

into C code. The source distribution ships with pre-generated C

source files, so you do not need Cython installed to build from

release sources.

.. _Cython: http://www.cython.org

.. _`how to build lxml from source`: build.html

If you have read these instructions and still cannot manage to install lxml,

you can check the archives of the `mailing list`_ to see if your problem is

known or otherwise send a mail to the list.

.. _`mailing list`: http://lxml.de/mailinglist/

Using lxml with python-libxml2

------------------------------

If you want to use lxml together with the official libxml2 Python

bindings (maybe because one of your dependencies uses it), you must

build lxml statically. Otherwise, the two packages will interfere in

places where the libxml2 library requires global configuration, which

can have any kind of effect from disappearing functionality to crashes

in either of the two.

To get a static build, either pass the ``--static-deps`` option to the

setup.py script, or run ``pip`` with the ``STATIC_DEPS`` or

``STATICBUILD`` environment variable set to true, i.e.

::

STATIC_DEPS=true pip install lxml

The ``STATICBUILD`` environment variable is handled equivalently to

the ``STATIC_DEPS`` variable, but is used by some other extension

packages, too.

Source builds on MS Windows

---------------------------

Most MS Windows systems lack the necessary tools to build software,

starting with a C compiler already. Microsoft leaves it to users to

install and configure them, which is usually not trivial and means

that distributors cannot rely on these dependencies being available

on a given system. In a way, you get what you've paid for and make

others pay for it.

Due to the additional lack of package management of this platform,

it is best to link the library dependencies statically if you decide

to build from sources, rather than using a binary installer. For

that, lxml can use the `binary distribution of libxml2 and libxslt

<http://www.zlatkovic.com/libxml.en.html>`_, which it downloads

automatically during the static build. It needs both libxml2 and

libxslt, as well as iconv and zlib, which are available from the

same download site. Further build instructions are in the

`source build documentation <build.html>`_.

Source builds on MacOS-X

------------------------

If you are not using macports or want to use a more recent lxml

release, you have to build it yourself. While the pre-installed system

libraries of libxml2 and libxslt are less outdated in recent MacOS-X

versions than they used to be, so lxml should work with them out of the

box, it is still recommended to use a static build with the most recent

library versions.

Luckily, lxml's ``setup.py`` script has built-in support for building

and integrating these libraries statically during the build. Please

read the

`MacOS-X build instructions <build.html#building-lxml-on-macos-x>`_.