Assertion Error with pip list

I experienced the following error after installing pip and attempting a: pip list --outdated

---

C:\Python33\Scripts\pip-script.py run on 07/27/13 15:32:54
Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\pip\basecommand.py", line 134, in main
    status = self.run(options, args)
  File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\pip\commands\list.py", line 74, in run
    self.run_outdated(options)
  File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\pip\commands\list.py", line 83, in run_outdated
    for dist, remote_version_raw, remote_version_parsed in self.find_packages_latests_versions(options):
  File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\pip\commands\list.py", line 104, in find_packages_latests_versions
    installed_packages = get_installed_distributions(local_only=options.local, include_editables=False, skip=self.skip)
  File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\pip\util.py", line 384, in get_installed_distributions
    return [d for d in pkg_resources.working_set
  File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\pip\util.py", line 387, in <listcomp>
    and editable_test(d)
  File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\pip\util.py", line 377, in <lambda>
    editable_test = lambda d: not dist_is_editable(d)
  File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\pip\util.py", line 347, in dist_is_editable
    req = FrozenRequirement.from_dist(dist, [])
  File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\pip\__init__.py", line 194, in from_dist
    assert len(specs) == 1 and specs[0][0] == '=='
AssertionError

[UzLA]

The issue is still there in Ubuntu 15.04, pip 1.5.6, distribute-0.7.3 (the pip upgrade of ‘pip’ or ‘distribute’ does not work, as the issue seems to be Ubuntu specific. See below).

The fix it:

• to remove ubuntu package: sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove python-pip
• download official pip installer: wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
• install pip by running downloaded installer: sudo python get-pip.py
• add sym-link to make it run without full path: sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/pip /usr/bin/pip

Done!

---

The issue logs:

$ sudo pip install -U pip
Downloading/unpacking pip from https://pypi.python.org/packages/py2.py3/p/pip/pip-6.1.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl#md5=172eb5abab25a5e0f7a7b63c7a49378d
  Downloading pip-6.1.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (1.1MB): 1.1MB downloaded
Installing collected packages: pip
  Found existing installation: pip 1.5.6
    Not uninstalling pip at /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages, owned by OS
Successfully installed pip
Cleaning up...

$ pip install --upgrade distribute
Downloading/unpacking distribute
  Downloading distribute-0.7.3.zip (145kB): 145kB downloaded
  Running setup.py (path:/tmp/pip-build-ZpdlMd/distribute/setup.py) egg_info for package distribute

Downloading/unpacking setuptools>=0.7 (from distribute)
  Downloading setuptools-16.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (461kB): 461kB downloaded
Installing collected packages: setuptools, distribute
  Running setup.py install for distribute

Successfully installed setuptools distribute
Cleaning up...

$ pip list
aniso8601 (0.92)
...
Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/basecommand.py", line 122, in main
    status = self.run(options, args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/commands/list.py", line 80, in run
    self.run_listing(options)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/commands/list.py", line 142, in run_listing
    self.output_package_listing(installed_packages)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/commands/list.py", line 151, in output_package_listing
    if dist_is_editable(dist):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/util.py", line 367, in dist_is_editable
    req = FrozenRequirement.from_dist(dist, [])
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/__init__.py", line 299, in from_dist
    assert len(specs) == 1 and specs[0][0] == '=='
AssertionError

Storing debug log for failure in /home/user/.pip/pip.log

[arktrin]

I’ve installed pip with sudo apt-get install python-pip, but even with latest pip, distribute and setuptools I still had AssertionError when using pip list or pip freeze in Ubuntu 14.10. Command sudo apt-get install python-pip also installs dependencies: python-colorama, python-distlib, python-html5lib, python-requests and python-wheel . I think some of these modules are giving me AssertionError, so I’ve uninstalled pip with all dependencies with sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove python-pip, and then just pip with sudo easy_install pip. Only this way works for me.