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pipx

Pipx is a command line tool to install and run Python applications in isolated environments.

Very useful not to pollute your user or device python environments.

Installation⚑

pip install pipx

Usage⚑

Now that you have pipx installed, you can install a program:

pipx install PACKAGE

for example

pipx install pycowsay

You can list programs installed:

pipx list

Or you can run a program without installing it:

pipx run pycowsay moooo!

You can view documentation for all commands by running pipx --help.

Upgrade⚑

You can use pipx upgrade-all to upgrade all your installed packages. If you want to just upgrade one, use pipx upgrade PACKAGE.

If the package doesn't change the requirements of their dependencies so that the installed don't meet them, they won't be upgraded unless you use the --pip-args '--upgrade-strategy eager' flag.

It uses the pip flag upgrade-strategy which can be one of:

  • eager: dependencies are upgraded regardless of whether the currently installed version satisfies the requirements of the upgraded package(s).
  • only-if-needed: dependencies are upgraded only when they do not satisfy the requirements of the upgraded package(s). This is the default value.

Troubleshooting⚑

Upgrading python version of all your pipx packages⚑

If you upgrade the main python version and remove the old one (a dist upgrade) then you won't be able to use the installed packages.

If you're lucky enough to have the old one you can use:

pipx reinstall-all --python <the Python executable file>

Otherwise you need to export all the packages with pipx list --json > ~/pipx.json

Then reinstall one by one:

set -ux
if [[ -e ~/pipx.json ]]; then
    for p in $(cat ~/pipx.json | jq -r '.venvs[].metadata.main_package.package_or_url'); do
        pipx install $p
    done
fi

The problem is that this method does not respect the version constrains nor the injects, so you may need to debug each package a bit.

References⚑