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I do not know what has happened because this used to work fine but I'm now experiencing a problem where I am running python2.7 but for some reason pip is installing in my python 3.5 dist-packages.

At least, I think this is the case based on when I type python -V I get Python 2.7.10 and when I type pip -V I get pip 8.1.2 from /usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages (python 3.5)

This is causing me knock on problems when setting up virtualenv etc. I've tried uninstalling and installing pip but it is still going back to 3.5. Could I have some advice please.

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  • Which one of python-pip and python3-pip (or both) do you have installed?
    – fkraiem
    Jul 12, 2016 at 10:13
  • I've only deliberately installed python-pip using sudo apt-get install pip but I've just checked and I have the latest versions of both installed
    – HenryM
    Jul 12, 2016 at 10:20
  • So I've just run sudo apt-get remove python3-pip but when I try pip -V I get the same directory still
    – HenryM
    Jul 12, 2016 at 10:22
  • I've now completely removed python3.5 and when I try pip -V I get -bash: /usr/local/bin/pip: /usr/bin/python3.5: bad interpreter: No such file or directory but if I try to install pip I'm messaged it is already there. Obviously a path issue, but how do I change it?
    – HenryM
    Jul 12, 2016 at 10:46
  • @HenryM sudo apt-get install pip in fact wouldn't work because there is no package named pip in the Ubuntu repositories. You probably meant sudo apt-get install python-pip (for Python 2) or sudo apt-get install python3-pip (for Python 3). Regardless, do you recall ever upgrading pip? If so, how did you upgrade pip?
    – edwinksl
    Jul 12, 2016 at 17:30

1 Answer 1

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If python2 and python3 are both installed, and pip for both has been installed, then there should be a separate pip2 and pip3 command that you can use, for the corresponding version of python.

Note: you have to explicitly install both pip versions: apt-get install python-pip for python2, and apt-get install python3-pip for python3.

Alternatively (but still requiring apt-get install of pip), you can use the pip module from your python executable directly, if you have Python 2.7.9 and later (on the python2 series), or Python 3.4+.

For example, on Ubuntu 16.04, after installing/upgrading python2 and python3 and both pip versions:

$ pip --version 
pip 8.1.1 from /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (python 2.7)

$ pip3 --version 
pip 8.1.1 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages (python 3.5)

$ python2 -m pip --version 
pip 8.1.1 from /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (python 2.7)

$ python3 -m pip --version 
pip 8.1.1 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages (python 3.5)
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