Use 'pip install' in the virtual environment created by conda

[CicoZhang]

Hi, guys:

I have some confusion about the scenario where I use 'pip install' in the virtual environment create by conda. If I did so, is the python package installed by 'pip' global or local to this conda virtual environment?

Thank you in advance.

Best,

Cico

[anton-petrov]

Command 'pip install' installs packages globally to ~/Users/user/anaconda/lib/python3.6/site-packages

[bryevdv]

This is not true. pip install will install into whatever environment pip itself is installed into and running from.

$ conda create -n pipenv numpy pip                                                  (mattpap/5810_typedarray_map)
Fetching package metadata ...............
Solving package specifications: .

Package plan for installation in environment /Users/bryan/anaconda/envs/pipenv:

The following NEW packages will be INSTALLED:

    mkl:        2017.0.1-0
    numpy:      1.11.3-py36_0
    openssl:    1.0.2k-0
    pip:        9.0.1-py36_1
    python:     3.6.0-0
    readline:   6.2-2
    setuptools: 27.2.0-py36_0
    sqlite:     3.13.0-0
    tk:         8.5.18-0
    wheel:      0.29.0-py36_0
    xz:         5.2.2-1
    zlib:       1.2.8-3

Proceed ([y]/n)?

#
# To activate this environment, use:
# > source activate pipenv
#
# To deactivate this environment, use:
# > source deactivate pipenv
#

[bryan:~/work/bokeh/examples/models]$ source activate pipenv                                                            (mattpap/5810_typedarray_map)
(pipenv) [bryan:~/work/bokeh/examples/models]$ pip install scipy                                                        (mattpap/5810_typedarray_map)
Collecting scipy
  Downloading scipy-0.18.1-cp36-cp36m-macosx_10_6_intel.macosx_10_9_intel.macosx_10_9_x86_64.macosx_10_10_intel.macosx_10_10_x86_64.whl (22.2MB)
    100% |████████████████████████████████| 22.2MB 36kB/s
Requirement already satisfied: numpy>=1.7.1 in /Users/bryan/anaconda/envs/pipenv/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from scipy)
Installing collected packages: scipy
Successfully installed scipy-0.18.1
(pipenv) [bryan:~/work/bokeh/examples/models]$ python                                                                   (mattpap/5810_typedarray_map)
Python 3.6.0 |Continuum Analytics, Inc.| (default, Dec 23 2016, 13:19:00)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 6.0 (clang-600.0.57)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import scipy
>>> scipy
<module 'scipy' from '/Users/bryan/anaconda/envs/pipenv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/scipy/__init__.py'>
>>>

Note that SciPy was installed into the "pipenv" conda environment, because that is where pip was run from.

If you only happen to have pip installed in your root env, and your root env is on your path, then yes a pip install will always (by coincidence) install into the root env.

[CicoZhang]

@bryevdv When I run the command conda create -n pipenv, it is a clear environment without pip installed. When I install pip in this environment, pip is local to it; therefore the tools installed by pip is, transitively, local to this environment. Cool. Thank you for the explanation.

[ccordoba12]

Closing then, as the question is solved now.

[kronos29296]

This works only if pip is added when the conda env is created.

If I add pip later using conda install pip then use pip to install packages it installs to global directory.

[makmanalp]

@kronos29296 huh - any idea why?

[Koriolisah]

@kronos29296 @makmanalp

Kronos, when you come back later and do 'conda install pip' as you said, did you specify which environment to install pip into? Perhaps its installing to the global directory as you say because its installing to the root environment.

[kronos29296]

The problem occurs when i create an empty conda env first and activate it. Then I conda install pip. In the same activated env, if i use pip install, it installs to global directory. The env is activated and conda install works properly though.

This doesn't occur if I add pip to env when creating it. This is the problem.

[billism]

@kronos29296
I guess both the root env and the virtual env have pip installed. When you ''pip install' something in the virtual env, the global pip is used by default. You could try to specify the directory of the virual env pip, like ''/miniconda3/envs/myenv/bin/pip install numpy''.

[andrewsanchez]

@billism That worked for me, but was not necessary if I installed pip when creating the env, i.e. conda create -n env pip

[thammegowda]

@billism
If global pip is being used the which pip command should show the path right?
For my surprise, the which pip pointed to the one inside virtual env.

So I 👍 to @kronos29296 report of pip's behavior

[ashander]

I've investigated a bit. The scenario reported by @kronos29296 occurs when you

1. create an env without pip
2. install pip later
3. have not yet deactivated and reactivated the env

It can be fixed by deactivating and reactivating the env.

An example:

conda create -n pipenv
source activate pipenv
pip freeze # shows packages installed to global
conda install pip

at this point, the behavior reported occurs

which pip # shows local pip 
pip freeze # STILL shows global packages!
pip install  # installs global packages!

to fix:

source deactivate
source activate pipenv
which pip # shows local pip
pip freeze # now shows local packages!
pip install  # now installs a local package

[h2oworker]

I also have confusion about the environments.

I tried the @ashander 's suggestion but it is not working. So far I am unable to isolate the environments (and install packages only in environment of my choice using pip)?

My scenario:

• Windows 10 with system wide python 3.6 and 2.7 - the paths to these are in the environment variable
• Installed anaconda (python 3.6.2 / 32 bit) - path is not on the environment variable
• Created an environment - test-anaconda - using the anaconda navigator

I opened up 3 terminal windows, activated the environments and issued the pip3 list command:

• Window 1 - system wide python 3.6 installation
  • Expect to see the packages on my global installation - pip 9.0.1, setuptools 28.8.0
  • Result -- same as expected
• Window 2 - Anaconda root (@ ..\anaconda3)
  • Expect to see all the packages that were installed with the default anaconda installation. These are visible / installed as per the anaconda navigator (e.g. jupyter, matplotlib...)
  • Result -- lists the packages on the system wide python installation ( pip 9.0.1, setuptools 28.8.0) nothing from the anaconda root installation
• Window 3 - isolated environment test-anaconda (@ ..\anaconda3\envs\test-anaconda)
  • Expect to see the pip and setuptools packages that were installed during the environment installation. These are visible / installed as per the anaconda navigator (e.g. pip 9.0.1, setuptools 36.4.0...)
  • Result -- lists the packages on the system wide python installation ( pip 9.0.1, setuptools 28.8.0) nothing from the environment.

I also added the python interpreter from test-environment to pycharm. Pycharm does show the packages on the test-environment environment. However, when I open the terminal within pycharm it again shows the packages on the system-wide python installation and not on the environment.