lib dependencies

[phelipelui]

Hello,
I would like to know if there is a lite version of this library or an alternative that relies only on Python dependencies.

The reason is that I use this library inside a container and would like it to be smaller by avoiding the need to run "install -y" in the Containerfile.

I am using multi-stage builds, where in the first stage I compile the Python binary and then copy it to the final stage, thereby reducing the overall image size.

[github-actions]

Hi @phelipelui, thank you for opening this issue!

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Thank you for your patience!

[jahnvi480]

Hi @phelipelui, thanks for the question!
mssql-python is already designed to be container-friendly. Unlike pyodbc, it does not require installing the Microsoft ODBC Driver separately or configuring a driver manager like unixODBC, the driver is bundled directly in the pip wheel.
The only system packages needed on Linux are a small set of runtime libraries that the bundled ODBC driver dynamically links against:

# Debian/Ubuntu — typically ~3-5 MB
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
    libltdl7 libkrb5-3 libgssapi-krb5-2 \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# Alpine — even smaller
RUN apk add --no-cache libtool krb5-libs

These are small shared libraries (libltdl for dynamic loading, krb5/gssapi for Kerberos authentication), not heavy dev packages. They add only a few megabytes to your image.

[phelipelui]

Just to bring the context here.
I was trying to use a distroless image and multi-stage to build an executable file with cx_Freeze, but the mssql-python require the step "RUN apt intall..."

[jahnvi480]

Hi @phelipelui, thanks for following up!

As mentioned in our README installation section, mssql-python already bundles the Microsoft ODBC Driver directly in the pip wheel, there's no need to install a separate ODBC driver or driver manager.

However, the bundled ODBC driver has runtime dependencies on a small set of system shared libraries (for dynamic loading and Kerberos authentication) that are not part of the driver itself and must be present on the host OS:

• Debian/Ubuntu: apt-get install -y libltdl7 libkrb5-3 libgssapi-krb5-2
• Alpine: apk add libtool krb5-libs
• RHEL: dnf install -y libtool-ltdl krb5-libs
• macOS: brew install openssl

These are standard OS-level libraries that the ODBC driver links against at runtime. A pure-Python driver without any native dependencies is not feasible since communication with SQL Server requires the C-level ODBC protocol implementation.