Error: ffi.h: No such file or directory

While trying to install some python libraries, you may encounter the given error:

c/_cffi_backend.c:14:17: error: ffi.h: No such file or directory

Example:

Assumes that you are trying to install Scrapy in Linux based system and above mentioned error may occur if the system doesn't have ffi.h

pip install Scrapy

Solution:

FFI stands for foreign funciton interface, which needs to be installed in the system. More information about ffi can be found in this link: https://sourceware.org/libffi/

Installing ffi in Fedora/Centos/Redhat systems

Package Name: libffi-devel

yum install libffi-devel

Installing ffi in Ubuntu/Debian based systems

Package Name: libffi-dev

sudo apt-get install libffi-dev