Introduction

Pip is a package manager for Python, it downloads, installs, uninstalls, and updates python packages using the Python Package Index.

Pip is capable of downloading libraries from a wide range of open-source projects, meaning you can download and import multiple packages without having to install each one manually.

How to install Pip using apt

# python 2
apt install python-pip

# python 3
apt install python3-pip

If your user doesn't have root privileges, you'll need to use sudo to install Pip:

# python 2
sudo apt install python-pip

# python 3
sudo apt install python3-pip

Installing Pip packages

Installing packages using Pip is like installing packages using apt.

Replace the apt keyword with pip or pip3, depending on the version you're using.

# python 2
pip install requests

# python 3
pip3 install requests

Uninstalling Pip packages

Use the uninstall keyword to remove packages:

# python 2
pip uninstall requests

# python 3
pip3 uninstall requests

Importing Pip packages

In the previous examples, we downloaded the requests library.

To use the requests package in your script import it:

import requests

The following demo prints the responseText (HTML) from https://example.com:

url = "https://example.com"
headers = { "Accept-Encoding": "identity" }
response = requests.get(url, headers = headers)
print(response.text)

Updating Pip using apt and Pip

The --upgrade flag is available on both the pip and apt commands.

This means that you can pass the --upgrade flag to the install command of both package managers:

# python 2
pip install --upgrade pip
sudo apt install --upgrade python-pip

# python 3
pip3 install --upgrade pip
sudo apt install --upgrade python3-pip

Fixing directory errors

Pip will try it's best to install packages in the proper directories, this might not work as expected if you're using sudo to install packages.

To prevent getting errors such as: parent directory not owned by the current user, provide the -H flag to the sudo command:

# python 2
sudo -H pip install --upgrade pip

# python 3
sudo -H pip3 install --upgrade pip

This sets the $HOME environment variable to the home directory of the target user. In this case, root (sudo).

In other words, you're installing the package as root, but in the Pip directory of the user you logged in as.