In the past it was difficult to get MySQL working on virtualenv without using system packages. Now you can have a real separated environment with simple steps:

1. Follow this guide to install virtualenv using this command:

   virtualenv myproject --no-site-packages

   This command will install a new virtualenv inside a new directory myproject created by the command itself.

2. Activate virtualenv:

   source myproject/bin/activate

3. Upgrade setuptools

   pip install pip --upgrade

4. You can now install MySQLdb, inside the package MySQL-python:

   pip install MySQL-python

5. Now do a simple test trying to connect to an existing database:

   python
   import MySQLdb
   db = MySQLdb.connect(host="localhost",   # your host, usually localhost
                        user="chirale",         # your username
                        passwd="ITSASECRET",    # your password
                        db="chiraledb")         # name of the database
   cursor = conn.cursor()
   cursor.execute("SELECT VERSION()")
   row = cursor.fetchone()
   print "server version:", row[0]
   cursor.close()
   conn.close()
   

Tested on CentOS 7, Python 2.7

Tip: If you are starting to create a database doing all the dirty work alone you’ve to give SQLAlchemy a try. You can use like an ORM or a lower level as you wish.

See also

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python
Simple MySQLdb connection tutorial

About the same topic

Python: MySQLdb on Windows virtualenv (w. figures)