Package 'mysqlclient' does not build as-is via the AIPCC self-service pipeline and requires builder repository onboarding.

Build Failure Summary

Root Cause Analysis: `mysqlclient` Build Failure

What Failed

The build of mysqlclient 2.2.8 failed during the `get_requires_for_build_wheel` phase — before compilation even started. The package's `setup.py` uses `pkg-config` to locate MySQL/MariaDB client libraries, and none of the expected pkg-config packages were found in the build environment.

Key Error

mysqlclient: Trying pkg-config --exists mysqlclient
mysqlclient: Command 'pkg-config --exists mysqlclient' returned non-zero exit status 1.
mysqlclient: Trying pkg-config --exists mariadb
mysqlclient: Command 'pkg-config --exists mariadb' returned non-zero exit status 1.
mysqlclient: Trying pkg-config --exists libmariadb
mysqlclient: Command 'pkg-config --exists libmariadb' returned non-zero exit status 1.
mysqlclient: Trying pkg-config --exists perconaserverclient
mysqlclient: Command 'pkg-config --exists perconaserverclient' returned non-zero exit status 1.

Exception: Can not find valid pkg-config name.
Specify MYSQLCLIENT_CFLAGS and MYSQLCLIENT_LDFLAGS env vars manually

Why It Failed

`mysqlclient` is a C extension that wraps the MySQL/MariaDB C client library (`libmysqlclient` or `libmariadb`). It requires the development headers and libraries to be present at build time. The build environment is missing the necessary system package that provides the `.pc` file for `pkg-config` discovery.

How to Fix

Install the MySQL or MariaDB client development package in the build environment before building. On RHEL/Fedora-based systems:

• For MariaDB (typical on RHEL):
  ```bash
  dnf install mariadb-connector-c-devel
  ```
  This provides the `libmariadb.pc` pkg-config file.

• For MySQL:
  ```bash
  dnf install mysql-devel
  ```

The `pkg-config` tool itself must also be installed (package `pkgconf-pkg-config` or `pkg-config`), though the log shows `pkg-config` is already running — it just can't find any of the expected `.pc` files.

Alternative (if system packages cannot be added)

Set the `MYSQLCLIENT_CFLAGS` and `MYSQLCLIENT_LDFLAGS` environment variables manually to point to the correct include and library paths, as the error message itself suggests. This bypasses the `pkg-config` lookup entirely. For example:

export MYSQLCLIENT_CFLAGS="-I/usr/include/mysql"
export MYSQLCLIENT_LDFLAGS="-L/usr/lib64 -lmysqlclient"

However, this still requires the actual C headers and shared library to be present — it only skips the discovery step, not the dependency itself.

Summary

Packaging Analysis Summary

Here is the executive summary formatted as a JIRA comment in JIRA wiki markup:

Executive Summary: mysqlclient Packaging Analysis

mysqlclient is a moderate complexity C-extension package (4/10) that provides a Python interface to MySQL/MariaDB databases. No pre-built Linux wheels exist on PyPI — only Windows wheels and source distributions are published — so a source build is the only option for Linux targets. The build compiles a single C source file (

_mysql.c

, ~3,000 lines) and requires MySQL/MariaDB client development headers and libraries at build time. The package has zero Python runtime dependencies, making dependency management straightforward. The latest release is v2.2.8 (2026-02-10), which requires Python >= 3.10 and setuptools >= 77.

The primary build requirement is the

mariadb-connector-c-devel

RPM package, which provides the necessary C headers and pkg-config

.pc

file for automatic library detection. The full set of build-time RPM dependencies is:

gcc

,

python3-devel

,

mariadb-connector-c-devel

, and

pkgconfig

. At runtime, only

mariadb-connector-c

(providing

libmariadb.so.3

) is needed. No critical packaging issues or blockers exist. Fedora already packages this successfully as

python-mysqlclient

using the same MariaDB connector approach, confirming build reproducibility on Red Hat platforms. If pkg-config detection fails, the environment variables

MYSQLCLIENT_CFLAGS

and

MYSQLCLIENT_LDFLAGS

can be set manually as a fallback.

The license is GPL-2.0-or-later, which is fully compatible with Red Hat distribution. The C source additionally carries a dual BSD-style permissive license, providing extra redistribution flexibility. The C extension is architecture-specific but GPU-agnostic — a single wheel built on x86_64 RHEL will work across all index variants (CPU, CUDA, ROCm) for a given Python version.

Recommended Build Command

# RHEL 9 / UBI 9
dnf install -y gcc python3-devel mariadb-connector-c-devel pkgconfig
pip wheel mysqlclient==2.2.8 --no-binary mysqlclient

Key Takeaways

• No blockers — the build is straightforward and well-established on RHEL
• Single system dependency —

  mariadb-connector-c-devel

  (build) /

  mariadb-connector-c

  (runtime)

• Zero Python dependencies at runtime
• Fallback alternative:

  PyMySQL

  (pure Python, no compilation) if build constraints arise, though mysqlclient is preferred for performance and Django compatibility

• Verify that

  mariadb-connector-c-devel

  is available in the target UBI/RHEL build repositories