pip (/easy_install)

Many tools in ROS use pip (or easy_install), which are popular package manager tools used with Python-based code. This page collects tips for customizing these tools.

Getting pip

pip is available as python-pip with apt-get:

If "pip" was not found, you can install it in two ways:

1. For Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and Debian 6 or later, pip can be installed with the package python-pip:

• sudo apt-get install python-pip

On other/older Operating systems, you can use easy_install to install pip. This will also get you the latest version of pip on Ubuntu.

• sudo easy_install pip

3. For older versions or other Linux distributions, you can download pip's installation script and run it with:

• sudo curl https://raw.github.com/pypa/pip/master/contrib/get-pip.py | python

Updating all pip-installed packages

Use recipes that you find on the internet, such as yolk:

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/yolk

easy_install (Do not use)

easy_install is no longer maintained and much less powerful and user-friendly than pip.

If you do use easy_install, always pass the -U option:

$ sudo easy_install -U ...

Configuring easy_install to install locally

To configure easy_install to install software to your home directory (instead of a system-wide directory) create ~/.pydistutils.cfg and add the following content:

• [install]
  user=1

Then add ~/.local/bin to your PATH:

• export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH