Error handling when installing mecab-python

If you get an error when installing mecab-python

Environment CentOS8 python 3.8.2

# dnf install python3-devel
# pip install mecab-python
WARNING: Running pip install with root privileges is generally not a good idea. Try `pip install --user` instead.
Collecting mecab-python
  Downloading https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/86/e7/bfeba61fb1c5d1ddcd92bc9b9502f99f80bf71a03429a2b31218fc2d4da2/mecab-python-0.996.tar.gz (40kB)
    100% |████████████████████████████████| 40kB 947kB/s
    Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/tmp/pip-build-9vu16hz5/mecab-python/setup.py", line 18, in <module>
        include_dirs=cmd2("mecab-config --inc-dir"),
      File "/tmp/pip-build-9vu16hz5/mecab-python/setup.py", line 10, in cmd2
        return string.split (cmd1(str))
    AttributeError: module 'string' has no attribute 'split'

    ----------------------------------------
Command "python setup.py egg_info" failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip-build-9vu16hz5/mecab-python/

Rewrite setup.py to support

download

First, download and unzip mecab-python-0.996.tar.gz

# wget https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/86/e7/bfeba61fb1c5d1ddcd92bc9b9502f99f80bf71a03429a2b31218fc2d4da2/mecab-python-0.996.tar.gz
# tar xvzf mecab-python-0.996.tar.gz
# cd mecab-python-0.996
# ls
MeCab.py  MeCab_wrap.cxx  PKG-INFO  README  setup.py

Code rewriting of setup.py

Rewrite the part that is in error

Change before

def cmd2(str):
    return string.split (cmd1(str))

After change

def cmd2(str):
    #return string.split (cmd1(str))
    return cmd1(str).split()

Installation

# python setup.py install

Verification

mecab-test.py

import MeCab

text = 'US economic measures, total 220 trillion yen, GDP 10%, outing restrictions expanded'
m = MeCab.Tagger ()
words = m.parse (text).split('\n')
for elm in words:
    print(elm)

# python mecab-test.py
Rice noun,Proper noun,area,Country,*,*,Rice,Bay,Bay
Economic noun,General,*,*,*,*,Economy,Keizai,Keizai
Countermeasure noun,Change connection,*,*,*,*,Countermeasures,Taisaku,Taisaku
, Symbol,Comma,*,*,*,*,、,、,、
Total noun,General,*,*,*,*,the amount,Sougaku,Sogaku
220 noun,number,*,*,*,*,*
Sign noun,number,*,*,*,*,Trillion,Butterfly,Cho
Yen noun,suffix,Classifier,*,*,*,Circle,En,En
Also particles,Particle,*,*,*,*,Also,Mo,Mo
symbol,Blank,*,*,*,*,　,　,　
GDP noun,General,*,*,*,*,*
10 nouns,number,*,*,*,*,*
% Noun,suffix,Classifier,*,*,*,％,percent,percent
, Symbol,Comma,*,*,*,*,、,、,、
Going out noun,Change connection,*,*,*,*,Go out,Gaishutu,Gaishutu
Regulatory noun,Change connection,*,*,*,*,Regulation,Kisei,Kisei
Is a particle,Case particles,General,*,*,*,But,Moth,Moth
Expanded noun,Change connection,*,*,*,*,Expansion,Kakudai,Kakudai
EOS

If you get an error

# python mecab-test.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mecab-test.py", line 4, in <module>
    m = MeCab.Tagger ()
  File "/usr/local/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/MeCab.py", line 307, in __init__
    this = _MeCab.new_Tagger(*args)
RuntimeError

Set the environment variable MECABRC

[mecab installation path]/etc/mecabrc

Setting example

export MECABRC=/usr/local/etc/mecabrc

mecab installation procedure

php-mecab installation