fitsio failing to build wheel for pip based install on github.

[eacharles]

It looks like the specific error is:
configure: error: Unable to locate bz2 library needed when enabling bzip2 support; try specifying the path

You can find an example here:
https://github.com/LSSTDESC/rail_pipelines/actions/runs/12282370023/job/34273426914

[esheldon]

Can you try installing libbz2 in the container?

[esheldon]

Probably something like apt install libbz2-dev

[esheldon]

I can give a little context: pip cannot install the bzip2 library, so it is up to the user to make sure it is available. My guess is the github containers may no longer be including that library as part of the standard set of installations.

[eacharles]

That does work, but we have something like 60 or so workflows, and I'd rather not have to update them all.

[eacharles]

That's like 4-5 workflows per package across somethink like 12-15 packages.

[esheldon]

This is out of my control. Neither I or the fitsio package are affiliated with github

I think you have a few options:

1. Complain to github.
2. edit the workflow to install the dependency
3. edit the workflow to choose a different container. There are alternative containers out there that may have your dependency

[rmjarvis]

FWIW, I worked around this issue by adding the following to my ci.yml file:

- name: Install libbz2
  if: matrix.os == 'ubuntu-latest'
  run: sudo -H apt-get install -y libbz2-dev

This seems to have worked for me.

[ntessore]

Hi @esheldon, have you thought about providing wheels for fitsio? The process is pretty much automatic with cibuildwheel (here an example of mine)

[esheldon]

@beckermr do you have ideas about this proposal?

[esheldon]

@ntessore I think this would not fix the issue of bz2, since that is linked as a shared library. The library would still need to be installed, but pip can't do that.

The reason it "just works" for conda is because conda installs its own bz2 as a dependency.

[ntessore]

IIUC cibuildwheel will take care of the shared libraries using auditwheel/delocate

[rmjarvis]

I think that's right. GalSim uses it and it works correctly with the FFTW library.

[rmjarvis]

You can use our wheels.yml as a template if you want:
https://github.com/GalSim-developers/GalSim/blob/releases/2.6/.github/workflows/wheels.yml

[beckermr]

Yes if people want wheels, we can ship them. We still need to ship the sdist as well. I do not like wheels but lots of folks do. Best to give the people what they want.

[rmjarvis]

You don't like wheels, because you always use conda. Wheels are for people who don't use conda. :) But yes, the last thing.

[beckermr]

💯 that's correct @rmjarvis :)