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POWhat's the proper way to install pip, virtualenv, and distribute for Python?
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copied!<h2>Short Question</h2> <ul> <li>What is the proper way to install <a href="http://pip.readthedocs.org" rel="noreferrer"><code>pip</code></a>, <a href="http://virtualenv.openplans.org/" rel="noreferrer"><code>virtualenv</code></a>, and <a href="http://packages.python.org/distribute/" rel="noreferrer"><code>distribute</code></a>?</li> </ul> <h2>Background</h2> <p>In <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4314376/python-egg-file/4314446#4314446">my answer</a> to <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4314376/python-egg-file">SO question 4314376</a>, I recommended using <code>ez_setup</code> so that you could then install <code>pip</code> and <code>virtualenv</code> as follows:</p> <pre><code>curl -O http://peak.telecommunity.com/dist/ez_setup.py sudo python ez_setup.py sudo easy_install pip sudo pip install virtualenv </code></pre> <p>I originally pulled these instructions from Jesse Noller's blog post <a href="http://jessenoller.com/2009/03/16/so-you-want-to-use-python-on-the-mac/" rel="noreferrer">So you want to use Python on the Mac?</a>. I like the idea of keeping a clean global site-packages directory, so the only other packages I install there are <a href="http://www.doughellmann.com/projects/virtualenvwrapper/" rel="noreferrer"><code>virtualenvwrapper</code></a> and <a href="http://packages.python.org/distribute/" rel="noreferrer"><code>distribute</code></a>. (I recently added <a href="http://packages.python.org/distribute/" rel="noreferrer"><code>distribute</code></a> to my toolbox because of <a href="http://s3.pixane.com/pip_distribute.png" rel="noreferrer">this Python public service announcement</a>. To install these two packages, I used:</p> <pre><code>sudo pip install virtualenvwrapper curl -O http://python-distribute.org/distribute_setup.py sudo python distribute_setup.py </code></pre> <h2>No more setuptools and easy_install</h2> <p>To really follow <a href="http://s3.pixane.com/pip_distribute.png" rel="noreferrer">that Python public service announcement</a>, on a fresh Python install, I would do the following:</p> <pre><code>curl -O http://python-distribute.org/distribute_setup.py sudo python distribute_setup.py sudo easy_install pip sudo pip install virtualenv sudo pip install virtualenvwrapper </code></pre> <h2>Glyph's Rebuke</h2> <p>In a comment to <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4314376/python-egg-file/4314446#4314446">my answer</a> to <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4314376/python-egg-file">SO question 4314376</a>, SO user <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/users/13564/glyph">Glyph</a> stated:</p> <blockquote> <p>NO. NEVER EVER do <code>sudo python setup.py install</code> whatever. Write a ~/.pydistutils.cfg that puts your pip installation into ~/.local or something. Especially files named <code>ez_setup.py</code> tend to suck down newer versions of things like setuptools and easy_install, which can potentially break other things on your operating system.</p> </blockquote> <h2>Back to the short question</h2> <p>So <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4314376/python-egg-file/4314446#4314446">Glyph's response</a> leads me to my original question:</p> <ul> <li>What is the proper way to install <a href="http://pip.readthedocs.org" rel="noreferrer"><code>pip</code></a>, <a href="http://virtualenv.openplans.org/" rel="noreferrer"><code>virtualenv</code></a>, and <a href="http://packages.python.org/distribute/" rel="noreferrer"><code>distribute</code></a>?</li> </ul>

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