Using Python's pip to Manage Your Projects' Dependencies

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September 16, 2024
Using Python's pip to Manage Your Projects' Dependencies
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The standard package manager for Python is pip. It allows you to install and manage packages that aren’t part of the Python standard library. If you’re looking for an introduction to pip, then you’ve come to the right place!

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:

  • Set up pip in your working environment
  • Fix common errors related to working with pip
  • Install and uninstall packages with pip
  • Manage projects’ dependencies using requirements files

You can do a lot with pip, but the Python community is very active and has created some neat alternatives to pip. You’ll learn about those later in this tutorial.

Getting Started With pip

So, what exactly does pip do? pip is a package manager for Python. That means it’s a tool that allows you to install and manage libraries and dependencies that aren’t distributed as part of the standard library. The name pip was introduced by Ian Bicking in 2008:

I’ve finished renaming pyinstall to its new name: pip. The name pip is [an] acronym and declaration: pip installs packages. (Source)

Package management is so important that Python’s installers have included pip since versions 3.4 and 2.7.9, for Python 3 and Python 2, respectively. Many Python projects use pip, which makes it an essential tool for every Pythonista.

The concept of a package manager might be familiar to you if you’re coming from another programming language. JavaScript uses npm for package management, Ruby uses gem, and the .NET platform uses NuGet. In Python, pip has become the standard package manager.

Finding pip on Your System

The Python installer gives you the option to install pip when installing Python on your system. In fact, the option to install pip with Python is checked by default, so pip should be ready for you to use after installing Python.

You can verify that pip is available by looking for the pip3 executable on your system. Select your operating system below and use your platform-specific command accordingly:

Windows PowerShell 
PS> where pip3

The where command on Windows will show you where you can find the executable of pip3. If Windows can’t find an executable named pip3, then you can also try looking for pip without the three (3) at the end.

Shell 
$ which pip3

The which command on Linux systems and macOS shows you where the pip3 binary file is located.

On Windows and Unix systems, pip3 may be found in more than one location. This can happen when you have multiple Python versions installed. If you can’t find pip in any location on your system, then you may consider reinstalling pip.

Instead of running your system pip directly, you can also run it as a Python module. In the next section, you’ll learn how.

Running pip as a Module

When you run your system pip directly, the command itself doesn’t reveal which Python version pip belongs to. This unfortunately means that you could use pip to install a package into the site-packages of an old Python version without noticing. To prevent this from happening, you should run pip as a Python module:

Shell 
$ python -m pip

Notice that you use python -m to run pip. The -m switch tells Python to run a module as an executable of the python interpreter. This way, you can ensure that your system default Python version runs the pip command. If you want to learn more about this way of running pip, then you can read Brett Cannon’s insightful article about the advantages of using python -m pip.

Sometimes you may want to be more explicit and limit packages to a specific project. In situations like this, you should run pip inside a virtual environment.

Using pip in a Python Virtual Environment

Read the full article at https://realpython.com/what-is-pip/ »

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September 16, 2024 at 07:30PM
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