Pip (python) differences between `--install-option='--prefix'` and `--root` and `--target`

Question

The pip documentation lacks too much wordings (to my eyes), about parameters to deal with source and destinations.

I\'ve experienced strange things installing Sphinx wit

Answer 1

First and obvious question: why don't you just install the package from PyPI?

sudo pip install sphinx

If you want to install anything that has a setup.py file with pip you can use the --editable flag:

-e, --editable

Install a project in editable mode (i.e. setuptools “develop mode”) from a local project path or a VCS url.

So you can just issue the command (prefix with sudo if necessary):

pip3 install -e /path/to/pkg

where /path/to/pkg is the directory where setup.py can be found (where you extracted the files).

To answer the other questions:

1. --root

   is used to change the root directory of the file system where pip should install package resources, not to change where to find the package.

2. --target is used to tell pip in which folder to install the package.

3. --install-option is used to set some variables that will be used by setup.py, not to change where pip should look for the file.