Python PIP – Python Packages Installation Guide

What Is Python PIP?

PIP is a package installer in Python, with the help of pip you can install any package or libraries.
The full form of PIP is the “Preferred Installer Program”. It is used to install the package, uninstall the package, for upgrading, and update the package. PIP is already built in the Python installer.

NOTE: when you import a package or module, Python is always of type module.It means that package is a directory of Python module.

What is Package?
Before understanding the package, you need to know modules. Module means, any python file is a module and its name being the file’s basename like a name without python extension(.py). Package means is a collection of modules. The package is a directory of the python module.

For Example: Suppose similar files are collected together in the same directory, for example, you have a python code and all are kept in ‘Python’ directory.

A directory can contain subdirectories and files, same as in python package can have sub-packages and modules.

A directory must contain a file named int.py in order for python to consider it as a package.

Version:
Now,Python3(pip3), and old all version python2 is uninstalled.

History of Python PIP

First introduced as “py install” a in 2008 by Lan Bicking. PIP name suggests that the creator received many replies on an old blog based on my install. In 2011, the Python Packaging Authority(Pyper) was created to take over the maintenance of pip and virtualenv from Bicking, led by Carl Meyer, Brian Rosner, and Jannis Leidel.

Installation pip

For Linux

For Linux distribution,the advantage is Python is already installed.

• Python 3.x

 Sudo apt-get install python-3 pip

Or

 pip3 install pip3

• Yum Package Manager(Python 3.x)

sudo yum install python3 python3-wheel

For Mac

For Mac systems, have python and pip already installed but old version or outdated.So, highly recommended update the version.
For pip install,

sudo easy_install pip3

Install the python update version,

brew install python

Installing the latest version of python with Homebrew but pip is unavailable,

brew unlink python && brew link python

For Windows

For windows7, windows8 and 8.1, and windows10, the third party application is ‘Anaconda’.
For Anaconda installation refer the link,
https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/install/windows/

Check pip Version

pip3 --version

The respective pip version display like
pip20.1.1from /home/Aniruddha/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pip (python 3.5)

Use of pip

pip3 is a command-line program.

pip3 <pip arguments>

Package Installation

Simply install the command used to install packages using pip3.
For example,

pip3 install numpy

Identifying the Package Version

import numpy as np

print(np.__version__)

Output:

Output: 1.16.1

Specifying Package Version

Sometimes, only a special version is required. So we can define version of the package like:

pip3 install 1.16.4

Uninstalling a Package

Can uninstall a package by using pip.

pip3 uninstall numpy

Upgrade pip3

pip3 application doesn’t auto update, still important to keep the update the pip3 version. So it is fast and simple

On Linux, Mac

pip3 install -U pip3

On windows

python -m pip3 install -U pip3

List of Packages

Using the pip3 command you can use the list of all packages.
For example,

pip3 list

Package Information using pip3

use the given command pip3 show.
Show the information about installed packages.

Pip3 show numpy 

Output:

Name: NumPy
Version: 1.16.1
Summary: NumPy is the fundamental package for array computing with Python.
Home-page: https://www.numpy.org
Author: NumPy Developers
Author-email: numpy-discussion@python.org
License: BSD
Location: /usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/numpy-1.16.1-py3.5-linux-x86_64.egg
Requires:
Required-by: matplotlib, thinc, tflearn, TensorFlow, spacy, scikit-surprise, scikit-learn, pandas, opencv-python, mxnet, mxnet-mkl, lightfm, Keras, Keras-Preprocessing, Keras-Applications, h5py, cufflinks, blis

Package Search

The search command helps to search for any package.
For example:

pip3 search numpy

Output:

numpy (1.18.5) – NumPy is the fundamental package for array computing with Python.
INSTALLED: 1.16.1
LATEST: 1.18.5
numpy-cloud (0.0.5) – Numpy in the cloud
numpy-ext (0.9.2) – numpy extension
numpy-alignments (0.0.2) – Numpy Alignments
numpy-utils (0.1.6) – NumPy utilities.
numpy-demo (1.23.0) – NumPy-demo is a test package and is a clone of numpy.

Package Help

Help command shows that particular packages are supported by various modules.

pip3 search numpy oauth

numpy (1.18.5) – NumPy is the fundamental
package for array computing with Python.
INSTALLED: 1.16.1
LATEST: 1.18.5
oauth (1.0.1) – Library for OAuth version 1.0a.
numpy-cloud (0.0.5) – Numpy in the cloud
numpy-ext (0.9.2) – numpy extension
numpy-alignments (0.0.2) -Numpy Alignments
numpy-utils (0.1.6) – NumPy utilities.

Pipenv

Pipenv is used for creating a virtual environment.
Why use it? Because they don’t overlap the package. It also helps to run all dependencies separately.

Conclusion

In this article, explain about pip how to install. It includes many installers, which makes it an essential tool for all python.