HOWTO: Install lxml on Mac OSX

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lxml is a total nightmare to install on the Mac. For my own future sanity, this is how to do it.
  • Install MacPorts
  • Install libxml2: sudo port install libxml2
  • Install libxslt: sudo port install libxslt
  • Make sure DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH includes /opt/local/lib (I am a unix n00b and just edit ~/.bash_profile to have the lines:
    DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/local/lib
    EXPORT DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
    in it and restart the shell)
  • Get the lxml code: svn co http://codespeak.net/svn/lxml/trunk lxml
  • Install Easy_Install (surely you've done this already!)
  • Install Cython: easy_install Cython==0.9.6.12
  • In the lxml folder run python setup.py build --with-xslt-config=/opt/local/bin/xslt-config
  • Then python setup.py install
  • Look puzzled when python test.py fails utterly
  • Shrug that off quickly when lxml works generally
This is for Tiger, it may work on other versions too.