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pip.conf user = true conflicts with venv

See original GitHub issue

Environment

pip version: 20.2.3
Python version: 3.8.5
OS: Mint 20

Description

If pip.conf contains the user = true instruction then attempting to run pip in a venv results in:

ERROR: Can not perform a '--user' install. User site-packages are not visible in this virtualenv.

I could find not command line option that is the oppposite of user (i.e. disables the pip.conf set user = true and so had to edit pip.conf in order to install packages into a venv with pip.

Expected behavior

I’d expect not to have to edit pip.conf. If pip is run from within a venv and is aware it’s in a venv how about silently ignoring the --user option? Or providing a command line option like --nouser to request it be ignored. That way Makefiles that implement venvs don’t bomb on a local dev system which by default has user = true (which after all is recommended … as we’re working desktop environments that have loads of Python code and fiddling with system libs is not recommended, we leave that to Ubuntu or our distro to do, and use user = true to do our Python dev work)

How to Reproduce

Add user = true to pip.conf (in ~/.config/pip/pip.conf on Ubuntu systems) and then create and activate a venv and try to install package with pip.

Output

ERROR: Can not perform a '--user' install. User site-packages are not visible in this virtualenv.

Issue Analytics

State:
Created 3 years ago
Comments:10 (7 by maintainers)

Top GitHub Comments

3reactions

pradyunsgcommented, Oct 10, 2020

FYI there’s a --no-user flag.

This is not a supported end-user flag. Please don’t use this.

1reaction

pfmoorecommented, Oct 10, 2020

Without sudo pip fails unless you specify --user

It shouldn’t (assuming a recent pip). If site-packages isn’t writeable, pip falls back to user site automatically. The recommendations you have seen are basically out of date and flawed, as you found out. (Never using sudo with pip is 100% correct advice, though 🙂) Unfortunately, it’s hard to get rid of out of date information on the internet 🙁

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