ImportError: libexpat.so.1 with fiona>=1.10

[soxofaan]

Importing fiona in a minimal docker container fails with 1.10

❯ docker run --rm -it python:3.11-slim-bookworm /bin/bash
...
root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# python -m pip install fiona
...
Downloading fiona-1.10.1-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (17.3 MB)
...
Successfully installed attrs-24.3.0 certifi-2024.12.14 click-8.1.8 click-plugins-1.1.1 cligj-0.7.2 fiona-1.10.1
...
root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# python -c "import fiona"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/fiona/__init__.py", line 42, in <module>
    from fiona._env import (
ImportError: libexpat.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Downgrading to <1.10 works without issue:

...
root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# python -m pip install 'fiona<1.10'
...
Downloading fiona-1.9.6-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (15.7 MB)
...
Successfully installed fiona-1.9.6 six-1.17.0
...
root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# python -c "import fiona;print(fiona)"
<module 'fiona' from '/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/fiona/__init__.py'>

[soxofaan]

FYI, libexpat seems to be included in 1.9.6 wheel, but not in 1.10:

root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# python -m pip install -U 'fiona==1.9.6'
root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# find /usr/local/lib/ -name libexpat*
/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/fiona.libs/libexpat-fiona-7e7d8668.so.1.6.8

root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# python -m pip install -U 'fiona==1.10.0'
root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# find /usr/local/lib/ -name libexpat*
# no results

root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# python -m pip install -U 'fiona==1.10.1'
root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# find /usr/local/lib/ -name libexpat*
# no results

[sgillies]

@soxofaan expat was removed from the slim image recently. There's some discussion at docker-library/python#989 about whether the slim image is compatible with the manylinux specs.

Fiona 1.9.6 wheels included libexpat, yes. Fiona 1.10 wheels do not include libexpat because that library is part of the manylinux2014 profile and tooling was changed so that expat is no longer vendored: pypa/manylinux#1190.

Installing libexpat in your image will solve the problem.

[soxofaan]

thanks for that info!