What is a pip?#

pip is the package installer for Python. You can use pip to install packages from the Python Package Index and other indexes/libraries.

Installation#

Usually, pip is automatically installed if you are:

  • working in a virtual environment

  • using Python downloaded from python.org

  • using Python that has not been modified by a redistributor to remove ensurepip

Supported methods#

If your Python environment does not have pip installed, there are ‘2’ mechanisms to install pip supported directly by pip’s maintainers:

  • ensurepip

  • get-pip.py

Alternative methods#

Depending on how you installed Python, there might be other mechanisms available to you for installing pip such as using Linux package managers.

Debian/Ubuntu#

On Ubuntu its come pre-installed if not, install it with the below command:

[$] <> sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install python3-venv python3-pip

To check to install modules via pip use pip list and to check pip version use pip --version commands.

Installing Modules with pip#

As a popular open-source development project, Python has an active supporting community of contributors and users that also make their software available for other Python developers to use under open-source license terms. pip is the preferred installer program. Starting with Python 3.4 is included by default with the Python binary installers.

Basic usage#

The following command will install the latest version of a module and its dependencies from the Python Packaging Index.

[$] <> python3 -m pip install netmiko

It is also possible to specify an exact or minimum version directly on the command line, the package name and the version.

[$] <> python -m pip install SomePackage==1.0.4    # specific version

Upgrading existing modules

[$] <> python3 -m pip install --upgrade netmiko

or pip must be requested explicitly to upgrade.

[$] <> python3 -m pip install -U pip