Failed to install statsmodels 0.9.0 if numpy is not installed before

[tamasgal]

Our CI server discovered this issue in the fresh install stage. An example how to reproduce it is given below.

The workaround is obviously installing numpy first.

The main issue is, when running CI, people often use a single file (requirements.txt) to install the dependencies. I am not sure what's the exact way to define the order of the packages to install, but statsmodels seem to come before numpy (in our case), although numpy is at the top of the file.

░ tamasgal@greybox:~
░ 07:52:49 > pyenv virtualenv 3.6.4 statsmodels_test
Using base prefix '/Users/tamasgal/.pyenv/versions/3.6.4'
New python executable in /Users/tamasgal/.pyenv/versions/3.6.4/envs/statsmodels_test/bin/python3.6
Also creating executable in /Users/tamasgal/.pyenv/versions/3.6.4/envs/statsmodels_test/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...done.
Requirement already satisfied: setuptools in /Users/tamasgal/.pyenv/versions/3.6.4/envs/statsmodels_test/lib/python3.6/site-packages
Requirement already satisfied: pip in /Users/tamasgal/.pyenv/versions/3.6.4/envs/statsmodels_test/lib/python3.6/site-packages
░ tamasgal@greybox:~
░ 07:54:51 > pyenv shell statsmodels_test
░ tamasgal@greybox:~
░ 07:55:01 > pip install statsmodels
Collecting statsmodels
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/67/68/eb3ec6ab61f97216c257edddb853cc174cd76ea44b365cf4adaedcd44482/statsmodels-0.9.0.tar.gz
    Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/private/var/folders/n2/fpv312vd5xg91ncw_s5f1m5m0000gn/T/pip-install-azgq3_k_/statsmodels/setup.py", line 347, in <module>
        from numpy.distutils.misc_util import get_info
    ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'numpy'

    ----------------------------------------
Command "python setup.py egg_info" failed with error code 1 in /private/var/folders/n2/fpv312vd5xg91ncw_s5f1m5m0000gn/T/pip-install-azgq3_k_/statsmodels/

[elboerto]

Same here. There seems to be an numpy import within the setup.py. Installing from a requirements.txt on a machine without numpy fails.

[thequackdaddy]

xref #3195

[Thomasillo]

Same here

[bashtage]

This fixed in #4871, although it hasn't been accepted.

[tplude]

I'm also experiencing this issue