Error while installing a 'sqlite3' Python package

Question

I have been trying to install several packages on my newly reformatted RPi and came across this error:

Command python setup.py egg_info failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip-build-d1xgrryi/sqlite3

In the past I have used SQLite3 on my RPi so I am unsure what seems to be the issue now... I have tried resolving the issue through updating, upgrading and installing libraries that I thought might help, but I was unsucessful.

Could anyone please tell me why I get this issue and what I could do to overcome this?

Full console message:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo pip3 install sqlite3
Downloading/unpacking sqlite3
  Downloading sqlite3-99.0.tar.gz
  Running setup.py (path:/tmp/pip-build-d1xgrryi/sqlite3/setup.py) egg_info for package sqlite3
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 17, in <module>
      File "/tmp/pip-build-d1xgrryi/sqlite3/setup.py", line 2, in <module>
        raise RuntimeError("Package 'sqlite3' must not be downloaded from pypi")
    RuntimeError: Package 'sqlite3' must not be downloaded from pypi
    Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
    Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "<string>", line 17, in <module>

  File "/tmp/pip-build-d1xgrryi/sqlite3/setup.py", line 2, in <module>

    raise RuntimeError("Package 'sqlite3' must not be downloaded from pypi")

RuntimeError: Package 'sqlite3' must not be downloaded from pypi

----------------------------------------
Cleaning up...
Command python setup.py egg_info failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip-build-d1xgrryi/sqlite3
Storing debug log for failure in /root/.pip/pip.log

Steve Robillard · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-06T04:04:44.103

The error is pretty clear that sqlite3 should not be downloaded from pypi (this is where pip3 gets packages from by default). To install from the Raspbian repository do this:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install sqlite3

You can then verify it is installed and its version with the following command:

sqlite3 --version

You don't mention if you are using virtualenv, but if you are you may want to read this post. Which provides a workaround for the problem and its cause.

Error while installing a 'sqlite3' Python package

1 Answers1