python - Ipython no readline available and pip install readline error

Question

I installed ipython but it doesn't have the readline option. I first downloaded gnu readline and compiled and installed. DIdn't know whether it was a proper solution but was the first thing I thought of. It still wouldn't work to no avail with the same error as before:

WARNING: Readline services not available on this platform.
WARNING: The auto-indent feature requires the readline library

Then I tried using pip install readline and I get the error below. Any help would be appreciated:

running install

running build

running build_ext

building 'readline' extension

creating build

creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.6

creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.6/Modules

creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.6/Modules/2.x

gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -DHAVE_RL_CALLBACK -DHAVE_RL_CATCH_SIGNAL -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETION_APPEND_CHARACTER -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETION_DISPLAY_MATCHES_HOOK -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETION_MATCHES -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETION_SUPPRESS_APPEND -DHAVE_RL_PRE_INPUT_HOOK -I. -I/home/jspender/include/python2.6 -c Modules/2.x/readline.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.6/Modules/2.x/readline.o -Wno-strict-prototypes

creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.6

gcc -pthread -shared build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.6/Modules/2.x/readline.o readline/libreadline.a readline/libhistory.a -L/home/jspender/lib -lncurses -lpython2.6 -o build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.6/readline.so

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lncurses

collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1

----------------------------------------
Command /home/jspender/bin/python2.6 -c "import setuptools;__file__='/home/jspender/build/readline/setup.py';exec(compile(open(__file__).read().replace('
', '
'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --single-version-externally-managed --record /tmp/pip-lBWIOm-record/install-record.txt failed with error code 1
Storing complete log in /home/jspender/.pip/pip.log

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6622490/ipython-no-readline-available-and-pip-install-readline-error

Answer 1

tmaric is right. I had the same problem while installing iPython (Ubuntu 12.10, quantal, 32-bit). I was missing the dev version of the ncurses5 library. Try:

sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev

and then installing the readline module again through pip

pip install readline