Add name-only option in `pip freeze`

What’s the problem this feature will solve?

To display all installed package without version details.

Describe the solution you’d like

pip freeze --simple, then all names of installed packages will be listed without version numbers.

Alternative Solutions

There is a way to use gawk to eliminate version string after ==, but it is too complicated. Additional context

[xavfernandez]

I’m also -1 on this feature. I would more easily accept this feature as a new --format name value for pip list. But even there, you could pip list --format json | jq -r .[].name 🤷‍♂️

[pradyunsg]

Hmm… All of that can be covered by pip freeze | sed 's/==.+$//' (or equivalent on windows, but given that you’re using $() syntax, you’re not affected by that). This is especially true since you can make the assumptions about the environment, like that there are no editable installs from a VCS repository – edge cases like this have to be covered by any option we add to pip freeze for example.

I’m not convinced that these use cases are common enough to justify adding more complexity to pip.

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While this is functionally simple, there’s a line to be drawn somewhere about what amount of knobs/levers we can have on a tool until it gets overwhelming. I don’t think this knob justifies the addition of complexity.