Installing cairo and pycairo in Mac OS X with python 2.6

Mac OS X includes an old version of Cairo(usually 1.8.6) which is too old for new software to link against. For the installation of py2cairo to succeed, we need 1.8.10.

Let's check which version we have:

$ pkg-config --atleast-version=1.8.10 cairo
$ echo $?
1

That means there's no a version 1.8.10 or above of the 'cairo' lib.

Let's install it using Brew:

$ brew install cairo

Let's now check again:

$ pkg-config --atleast-version=1.8.10 cairo
$ echo $?
1

No luck again! Why? We need to tell the system where the recently installed version of cairo lives:

$  export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=

Note: In my case, the path is: /usr/local/Cellar/cairo/1.10.2/lib/pkgconfig/


Let's check again:

$  pkg-config --atleast-version=1.8.10 cairo
$ echo $?
0

Awesome!

Let's now install py2cairo, the Python binding for cairo:

1. Download this.
2. Uncompress, go inside the directory.
3. Run the following command, expecting an output like the depicted below:

$ ./waf configure
  ./set_options
  ./init
  ./configure
Checking for program gcc or cc           : /usr/bin/gcc
Checking for program cpp                 : /usr/bin/cpp
Checking for program ar                  : /usr/bin/ar
Checking for program ranlib              : /usr/bin/ranlib
Checking for gcc                         : ok 
Checking for program python              : /Users/matias/Dev/CPI/Env/bin/python
Checking for Python version >= 2.6.0     : ok 2.6.1
Checking for library python2.6           : yes
Checking for program python2.6-config    : /usr/local/bin/python2.6-config
Checking for header Python.h             : yes
Checking for cairo >= 1.8.10             : yes
'configure' finished successfully (0.416s)
  ./shutdown

4. Now build:

$ ./waf build

5. Install:

$ ./waf install

6. Update your PYTHONPATH(you may want to add this line at the bottom of your ~/.profile):

export PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/:$PYTHONPATH 

7. Check everything worked:

$ python
Python 2.6.1 (r261:67515, Jun 24 2010, 21:47:49)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import cairo
>>> cairo.version
'1.8.10'

 Happiness!

 

FYI: The output of the configure, build and install commands in my case was the following(I include it for reference, in case it might be of any help):

(Env)matias@[13:51:34]:pycairo-1.8.10 $ ./waf configure  ./set_options

  ./init
  ./configure
Checking for program gcc or cc           : /usr/bin/gcc
Checking for program cpp                 : /usr/bin/cpp
Checking for program ar                  : /usr/bin/ar
Checking for program ranlib              : /usr/bin/ranlib
Checking for gcc                         : ok 
Checking for program python              : /Users/matias/Dev/CPI/Env/bin/python
Checking for Python version >= 2.6.0     : ok 2.6.1
Checking for library python2.6           : yes
Checking for program python2.6-config    : /usr/local/bin/python2.6-config
Checking for header Python.h             : yes
Checking for cairo >= 1.8.10             : yes
'configure' finished successfully (0.416s)
  ./shutdown

(Env)matias@[13:52:07]:pycairo-1.8.10 $ ./waf build

  ./set_options
  ./init
Waf: Entering directory `/Users/matias/Dev/CPI/Stuff/pycairo-build'
  ./build
  src/build
[1/9] cc: src/cairomodule.c -> ../pycairo-build/default/src/cairomodule_2.o
[2/9] cc: src/context.c -> ../pycairo-build/default/src/context_2.o
[3/9] cc: src/font.c -> ../pycairo-build/default/src/font_2.o
[4/9] cc: src/path.c -> ../pycairo-build/default/src/path_2.o
[5/9] cc: src/pattern.c -> ../pycairo-build/default/src/pattern_2.o
[6/9] cc: src/matrix.c -> ../pycairo-build/default/src/matrix_2.o
[7/9] cc: src/surface.c -> ../pycairo-build/default/src/surface_2.o
[8/9] copy: pycairo.pc.in -> ../pycairo-build/default/pycairo.pc
In file included from /usr/X11/include/X11/Xlib.h:64,
                 from /usr/local/Cellar/cairo/1.10.2/include/cairo/cairo-xlib.h:44,
                 from ../pycairo-1.8.10/src/surface.c:1360:
/usr/X11/include/X11/Xosdefs.h:145:1: warning: "_DARWIN_C_SOURCE" redefined
In file included from /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6/Python.h:8,
                 from ../pycairo-1.8.10/src/surface.c:32:
/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/include/python2.6/pyconfig.h:1075:1: warning: this is the location of the previous definition
[9/9] cc_link: ../pycairo-build/default/src/cairomodule_2.o ../pycairo-build/default/src/context_2.o ../pycairo-build/default/src/font_2.o ../pycairo-build/default/src/path_2.o ../pycairo-build/default/src/pattern_2.o ../pycairo-build/default/src/matrix_2.o ../pycairo-build/default/src/surface_2.o -> ../pycairo-build/default/src/_cairo.so
Waf: Leaving directory `/Users/matias/Dev/CPI/Stuff/pycairo-build'
'build' finished successfully (0.764s)
  ./shutdown

(Env)matias@[14:05:51]:pycairo-1.8.10 $ ./waf install

  ./set_options
  ./init
Waf: Entering directory `/Users/matias/Dev/CPI/Stuff/pycairo-build'
  ./build
  src/build
* installing src/pycairo.h as /usr/local/include/pycairo/pycairo.h
* installing /Users/matias/Dev/CPI/Stuff/pycairo-build/default/src/_cairo.so as /usr/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/cairo/_cairo.so
* installing /Users/matias/Dev/CPI/Stuff/pycairo-build/default/pycairo.pc as /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/pycairo.pc
Waf: Leaving directory `/Users/matias/Dev/CPI/Stuff/pycairo-build'
* installing src/__init__.py as /usr/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/cairo/__init__.py
* byte compiling '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/cairo/__init__.py'
'install' finished successfully (0.832s)
  ./shutdown