[SOLVED] Pip installs failing because cmake not found

Issue

Attempting to pip3 install pyportfolioopt, the build fails with

...ERROR: Failed building wheel for osqp
Failed to build osqp
ERROR: Could not build wheels for osqp, which is required to install pyproject.toml-based projects

...in the traceback, I can see that the problem is

Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.10/bin/cmake", line 5, in <module>
          from cmake import cmake
      ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'cmake'

So pip3 install cmake; pip3 list | grep cmake: cmake 3.24.0 ...try again, but same error.

OSX 12.5 (Monterey) - M1 Chip Python 3.10.6

Edit: Pleas note that the Python cmake module is distinct from the cmake build tool.

Solution

So, when I looked in the contents of /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.10/bin/cmake there was a from cmake import cmake line (but no actual file called cmake.py). So I tried to pip install again: pip3 install cmake, which returned the comment: Requirement already satisfied: cmake in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.10/lib/python3.10/site-packages (3.24.0) ...which I don't totally understand as /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.10/lib/python3.10 is a binary file, not a directory, but this puzzlement led me to try: pip3 uninstall cmake, and then retry installing the original library: pip3 install pyportfolioopt. Stangely enough, this worked.

So, in short the way to solve the no module named cmake bug was to uninstall cmake.... go figure.

Would love any additional insight that anyone can provide though.

Answered By - Damian Satterthwaite-Phillips

Answer Checked By - Gilberto Lyons (WPSolving Admin)