ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_ctypes' when install Python 3.7 on Linux

[semkin]

BPO	34036
Nosy	@vadmium, @iritkatriel
Superseder	bpo-31652: make install fails: no module _ctypes

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2021-10-19.23:03:28.649>
created_at = <Date 2018-07-03.19:10:48.512>
labels = ['3.7', 'expert-installation']
title = "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_ctypes' when install Python 3.7 on Linux"
updated_at = <Date 2021-10-19.23:03:28.648>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/semkin'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2021-10-19.23:03:28.648>
actor = 'iritkatriel'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2021-10-19.23:03:28.649>
closer = 'iritkatriel'
components = ['Installation']
creation = <Date 2018-07-03.19:10:48.512>
creator = 'semkin'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 34036
keywords = []
message_count = 3.0
messages = ['320998', '321252', '404374']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['martin.panter', 'semkin', 'iritkatriel']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'out of date'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = '31652'
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue34036'
versions = ['Python 3.7']

[semkin]

make install failed with
File "/tmp/tmp2gwe2ma_/pip-10.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/_internal/utils/glibc.py", line 3, in <module>
File "/common/dev/slevin/tools/Python-3.7.0/Lib/ctypes/init.py", line 7, in <module>
from _ctypes import Union, Structure, Array
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_ctypes'
make: *** [install] Error 1

I used PKG_CONFIG_PATH in config and LIBFFI_INCLUDEDIR was created correctly in Makefile.

How to configure location for libffi.a ?

[vadmium]

Ctypes is meant to be (at least it used to be) an optional module. If you don’t actually care about building ctypes, this might be the same as bpo-31652. Using “configure --without-ensurepip” was suggested as a workaround.

If you do want ctypes to be built, I would look for compiler and linker messages relating to the “_ctypes” module (before the install step).

[iritkatriel]

3.7 is no longer maintained. Please create a new issue if you are still having this problem with a current version of python (3.9+).