Python: OSError: cannot load library libcairo.so.2

Question

I’m having some trouble running a python script on my Windows 7 platform. I’ve installed Python and also cairo, last one using “pip”. I’m running the script using this command:

C:Python34>python.exe label/make_label.py

and I get the following error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "label/make_label.py", line 6, in <module>
    import cairocffi as cairo
  File "C:Python34libsite-packagescairocffi__init__.py", line 41, in <modul
e>
    cairo = dlopen(ffi, *CAIRO_NAMES)
  File "C:Python34libsite-packagescairocffi__init__.py", line 34, in dlopen

    return ffi.dlopen(names[0])  # pragma: no cover
  File "C:Python34libsite-packagescffiapi.py", line 118, in dlopen
    lib, function_cache = _make_ffi_library(self, name, flags)
  File "C:Python34libsite-packagescffiapi.py", line 411, in _make_ffi_libra
ry
    backendlib = _load_backend_lib(backend, libname, flags)
  File "C:Python34libsite-packagescffiapi.py", line 400, in _load_backend_l
ib
    return backend.load_library(name, flags)
OSError: cannot load library libcairo.so.2: error 0x7e

What I’ve already done is the following:

Added the PATH to GTK/bin in the environmental variable
I check the folder GTK/bin and found “libcairo-2.dll” so I renamed it to libcairo.so

I don’t know what other information could be useful in solving this but please let me know and I’ll try to add it.

Asked By: Niddro

||

Source

Answer 1

It seems cairo depends a shared library which is not in standard search library, however, the python is calling dlopen to dynamic load the library, so you could try to put the libcairo.so.2(if it’s a link, then make sure the reference locates at the same folder) in the working directory. You can also try pkg-config to set the environment. see here http://people.freedesktop.org/~dbn/pkg-config-guide.html

Answered By: Cui Heng

Answer 2

I just had the same issue (“OSError: cannot load library libcairo.so.2: error 0x7e”), and this is how I solved the problem on Windows (Windows 7 x64, Python 3.4.2 x86 (MSC v.1600 32 bit)):

downloaded an all-in-one bundle of the GTK+ stack including 3rd-party dependencies (which contains libcairo-2.dll and other Cairo-related libraries)
extracted this archive to a path which does NOT contain spaces _{(e.g. C:Programsgtk+)}
added the extracted directory’s bin subdirectory (which contains the mentioned libcairo-2.dll and other necessary files) to the PATH
- Win+R, SystemPropertiesAdvanced
- Environment Variables…
- added this directory to the Path variable (either to the user variables or system variables, after a semicolon) _{(e.g. ...;C:foo;C:Programsgtk+)}
- OK
pip install cairosvg
tested it with a very simple code, which already had worked:

import cairosvg
testsvg = '<svg height="30" width="30">
    <text y="10">123</text>
    </svg>'
svgConvertedToPng = cairosvg.svg2png(bytestring=testsvg)
print(svgConvertedToPng)

Answered By: Sk8erPeter

Answer 3

On Mac OS X using homebrew:

brew install cairo
brew install pango

Answered By: Hexatonic

Answer 4

Solved on Windows 10 as follows:

download the headless UniConverter installer
Find where it installed and add its dll subdirectory to the system path.
Close and re-open the command window to get the updated path.

Answered By: Handcraftsman

Answer 5

I just fixed this on Mac OSX 10.13 with an Anaconda Python installation and cairosvg:

$ conda install cairo pango gdk-pixbuf libffi cairosvg
$ cairosvg image.svg -o image.png

I got the idea from https://cairosvg.org/documentation/, which says that all its dependencies can be installed with WeasyPrint. WeasyPrint’s documentation for installation on MacOSX at https://weasyprint.readthedocs.io/en/latest/install.html#macos says to get the dependencies from HomeBrew:

brew install python3 cairo pango gdk-pixbuf libffi

So I tried it with conda instead and it worked fine.

Answered By: Harry Howard

Answer 6

What I found for MAC OSX when searching the internet for a quick solution.

So after installation of the external library with homebrew:

brew install cairo #and other necessary stuff

library linking

ln -s /opt/homebrew/lib/libcairo.2.dylib .

Need to link lib to run the python code, it is working for me.

Answered By: ati ince

Python: OSError: cannot load library libcairo.so.2

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