Python tries to install everything into /lib on os x

Question

I think that somehow the path /lib is stored in my python dist where it should not be.

It started when I was having troubles installing python modules using pip. Pip seemed to install everything into /lib/python2.7/site-packages where python could not find it.

Sidenote: pip uninstall could not find the package in /lib either, but it is where pip install would install it.

I tried:

which pip
$/usr/bin/pip
$which python
/usr/bin/python

I decided to uninstall pip, but then

$ easy_install uninstall pip
error: can't create or remove files in install directory

The following error occurred while trying to add or remove files in the
installation directory:

[Errno 13] Permission denied: '/lib'

The installation directory you specified (via --install-dir, --prefix, or
the distutils default setting) was:

/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

It seemed that even in my easy-install, the '/lib' location was used. I googled a bit, and decided to reinstall easy-install. I removed it:

$sudo rm /usr/local/bin/easy_install

And tried to install it again:

$ sudo curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/ez_setup.py -o - | python
Checking .pth file support in /lib/python2.7/site-packages/
error: can't create or remove files in install directory

So my problem is basically that I want to get my python installation as clean as possible, and that this /lib location is stored somewhere.

Some side information

• I am getting more familiar with the file structure of python now but I used to know little about it. I also had many problems installing python packages so I used many different python versions trough tutorials. (Via brew, canopy, anaconda, ipython). I uninstall most of them because I just want a clean installation as possible. (I once had tried to uninstall a site-package and I discovered that it was stored in 4 different locations simultaniously!)

• $ which python

  /usr/bin/python

• Most of my site-packages right now are installed in:

  /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages

  /Users/myusersname/Library/Python/2.7/lib/python/site-packages

• Empty:

  $ echo $PYTHONPATH

  • OS-X 10.9.5

I hope you guys can help me!

easy install pip

I want to get everything as clean as possible so I uninstalled my homebrew version of python.

EDIT:

Python from homebrew So I uninstalled all python versions except the system one (/usr/bin/python). Now I tried to install python via homebrew (/usr/local/bin/python does link to cellar).

When I try to run pip:

$which pip
/usr/local/pip

$pip
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "/usr/local/bin/pip", line 5, in <module>
 from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 2603, in <module>
working_set.require(__requires__)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 666, in require
needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
 File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 565, in resolve
raise DistributionNotFound(req)  # XXX put more info here
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: pip==1.5.6

When I try to

sudo easy_install -U pip
TEST FAILED: /lib/python2.7/site-packages/ does NOT support .pth files
error: bad install directory or PYTHONPATH

Python from python.org I uninstalled homebrew python and installed python using the GUI installer from the website. I checked that /usr/local/bin/python does link to this python.

This python does not come with pip or easy install. So I run setuptools:

$ sudo python ez_setup.py 
Extracting in /tmp/tmpR80Ydp
Now working in /tmp/tmpR80Ydp/setuptools-7.0
Installing Setuptools
running install
Checking .pth file support in /lib/python2.7/site-packages/
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Resources/Python.app/Contents/MacOS/Python -E -c pass
TEST FAILED: /lib/python2.7/site-packages/ does NOT support .pth files
error: bad install directory or PYTHONPATH
You are attempting to install a package to a directory that is not
on PYTHONPATH and which Python does not read ".pth" files from.  The
installation directory you specified (via --install-dir, --prefix, or
the distutils default setting) was:
/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

This is the error I am allways getting. It is very persistent and I hope you guys can help me with it. I allready tried some of the solutions here:

• Python pip broken after OS X 10.8 upgrade
• pip install on Mac OS X - PYTHONPATH

but nothing helps.

Setting the PYTHONPATH or running with or witouth sudo doesn't help eigther.

export PYTHONPATH='/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages'

Answer 1

If you want to get your python installation as clean as possible you should consider using a virtual environment.

$ sudo pip install virtualenv
$ pyvenv env                   # create a virtual environment
$ source env/bin/activate      # activate the virtual environment
(env) $ curl https://raw.github.com/pypa/pip/master/contrib/get-pip.py | python   # install pip in the virtualenv

This code works for python 3.4 but it should be something similar for python 2.7. Then you can install packages as you would normally do:

(env) $ pip install [package name]

All the packages you install this way will be saved in the "env" directory. If you want to run a program inside the virtual environment you have to activate it first. When you are done, you can simply deactivate it.

(env) $ deactivate