Dealing with multiple Python versions and PIP?

Question

Is there any way to make pip play well with multiple versions of Python? For example, I want to use pip to explicitly install things to either my s

Answer 1

The current recommendation is to use python -m pip, where python is the version of Python you would like to use. This is the recommendation because it works across all versions of Python, and in all forms of virtualenv. For example:

# The system default python:
$ python -m pip install fish

# A virtualenv's python:
$ .env/bin/python -m pip install fish

# A specific version of python:
$ python-3.6 -m pip install fish

Previous answer, left for posterity:

Since version 0.8, Pip supports pip-{version}. You can use it the same as easy_install-{version}:

$ pip-2.5 install myfoopackage
$ pip-2.6 install otherpackage
$ pip-2.7 install mybarpackage

---

EDIT: pip changed its schema to use pipVERSION instead of pip-VERSION in version 1.5. You should use the following if you have pip >= 1.5:

$ pip2.6 install otherpackage
$ pip2.7 install mybarpackage

Check https://github.com/pypa/pip/pull/1053 for more details

---

References:

• https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/200
• http://www.pip-installer.org/docs/pip/en/0.8.3/news.html#id4

Answer 2

It worked for me in windows this way:

1. I changed the name of python files python.py and pythonw.exe to python3.py pythonw3.py

2. Then I just ran this command in the prompt:

   python3 -m pip install package

Answer 3

On Linux, Mac OS X and other POSIX systems, use the versioned Python commands in combination with the -m switch to run the appropriate copy of pip:

python2.7 -m pip install SomePackage
python3.4 -m pip install SomePackage

(appropriately versioned pip commands may also be available)

On Windows, use the py Python launcher in combination with the -m switch:

py -2.7 -m pip install SomePackage  # specifically Python 2.7
py -3.4 -m pip install SomePackage  # specifically Python 3.4

if you get an error for py -3.4 then try:

pip install SomePackage

Answer 4

On Windows, you can execute the pip module using a given Python version through the Python launcher, py.exe, if you chose to install it during Python 3 setup.

py -3 -m pip install packagename
py -2 -m pip install packagename

You can be even more specific and request an exact sub-version of Python:

py -3.6 -m pip install packagename

To get a list of all installed Python versions available through the launcher, run:

py --list

Alternatively, you can launch the desired Python executable directly:

C:/path/to/specific/python.exe -m pip install packagename

Answer 5

So apparently there are multiple versions of easy_install and pip. It seems to be a big mess. Anyway, this is what I did to install Django for Python 2.7 on Ubuntu 12.10:

$ sudo easy_install-2.7 pip
Searching for pip
Best match: pip 1.1
Adding pip 1.1 to easy-install.pth file
Installing pip-2.7 script to /usr/local/bin

Using /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages
Processing dependencies for pip
Finished processing dependencies for pip

$ sudo pip-2.7 install django
Downloading/unpacking django
  Downloading Django-1.5.1.tar.gz (8.0Mb): 8.0Mb downloaded
  Running setup.py egg_info for package django

    warning: no previously-included files matching '__pycache__' found under directory '*'
    warning: no previously-included files matching '*.py[co]' found under directory '*'
Installing collected packages: django
  Running setup.py install for django
    changing mode of build/scripts-2.7/django-admin.py from 644 to 755

    warning: no previously-included files matching '__pycache__' found under directory '*'
    warning: no previously-included files matching '*.py[co]' found under directory '*'
    changing mode of /usr/local/bin/django-admin.py to 755
Successfully installed django
Cleaning up...

$ python
Python 2.7.3 (default, Sep 26 2012, 21:51:14) 
[GCC 4.7.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import django
>>> 

Answer 6

I ran into this issue myself recently and found that I wasn't getting the right pip for Python 3, on my Linux system that also has Python 2.

First you must ensure that you have installed pip for your python version:

For Python 2:

sudo apt-get install python-pip

For Python 3:

sudo apt-get install python3-pip

Then to install packages for one version of Python or the other, simply use the following for Python 2:

pip install <package>

or for Python 3:

pip3 install <package>