lxml 2.3.4 installation error on windows xp pro

Question

I'm on windows xp pro sp 3.

OK, so basically easy_install lxml does not work. I've got errors like this: Setup script exited with error: Unable to find vcvarsall.bat. But after I downloaded and installed Visual Studio 2008 express, a new error came up: ValueError: [u'path']. I've searched around and couldn't find any solution for this, anybody please help me out?

Thanks

Answer 1

It would appear that you do not have Microsoft's compiler installed.
You have a couple of other options:

• (recommended) find a pre-compiled binary somewhere e.g.: http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#lxml
• download the MinGW compiler and point easy_install to that...

---

If you choose to install a compiler follow these instructions:

1. install MinGW compiler
2. add MinGW compiler's bin directory to your PATH env var ( detailed instructions in accepted answer to this SO question: How do I add the MinGW bin directory to my system path? )
3. do one of the following two things:
   a. specify which compiler to use in the command-line arguments:
   python setup.py install build --compiler=mingw32
   b. or for a more permanent solution modify \Lib\distutils\distutils.cfg -- go ahead and create it if it doesn't exist -- and add this section:

[build]
compiler=mingw