title: installing python modules that require gcc on shared hosting with no gcc or root access
body: <p>I'm using Hostgator shared as a production environment and I had a problem installing some python modules, after using:</p>
  
  <p>pip install MySQL-python</p>
  
  <p>pip install pillow</p>
  
  <p><strong>results in:</strong></p>
  
  <p>unable to execute gcc: Permission denied
  error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1</p>
  
  <p><strong>server limitations</strong></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>no root access</li>
  <li>sudo doesnt work (sudo: effective uid is not 0, is sudo installed setuid root?)</li>
  <li>no gcc</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>questions</strong></p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>is there an alternative package for pillow. I want this to use django ImageField. (just like pymysql is an equally capable alternative for mysql-python)</p></li>
  <li><p>i have modules like mysql-python and pil installed in root, i.e. pip freeze without any virtualenv lists these modules. but i cannot install my other required modules in this root environment and in my virtualenv i cannot install mysql-python and pil. can something be done? can we import/use packages installed in root somehow in a virtualenv?</p></li>
  <li><p>is hostgator shared only good for PHP and not for python/django webapps. we have limited traffic so we are using hostgator shared. should we avoid hostgator or shared hosting? aren't they good enough for python/django (i had no problems in hosting static/PHP sites ever). are they too many problems and limitations or performance issues (FCGI)? if yes, what are the alternatives?</p></li>
  </ol>