Python pip broken after OS X 10.8 upgrade

Question

Made the upgrade to Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and get now the following error when trying to call $ pip:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/pip", line 5, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 2603, in <module>
    working_set.require(__requires__)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 666, in require
    needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 565, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req)  # XXX put more info here
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: pip==1.1

Update: Tried to reinstall by doing the install procedure again (with http://www.pip-installer.org/en/latest/installing.html#using-the-installer and easy_install), but didn't work, got the same error.

Tried now the following: Calling $ sudo pip and the above error disappears. Strange is, that the directories which could not befound in the above error message point to /System/Library/... while the python installation is (new ?) to find in /Library/Frameworks/..:

$ which python
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin/python

Any idea how to get rid of the sudo?

Answer 1

I actually couldn't do what was suggested. I instead had to execute:

xcode-select --install

Then I was able to install the ldap module.

Answer 2

I had a similar error except that sudo pip did not work either. I am using a "brew" installation of python (which is symlinked to /usr/local/bin) and found that the problem was that the shebangs in the pip and easy_install files were hardcoded to #!/usr/bin/python instead of #!/usr/local/bin/python, and so was using the system python version instead of the brew version.

Cheers, Tom

Answer 3

Use easy_install to update your pip to the latest version:

sudo easy_install -U pip

Also make sure you have the lastest XCode installed (ver 4.4) with Command Line Tools.

Answer 4

I changed the permissions for Python folder (from root to my user), and now everything work for me:

sudo chown -R <your_user>:wheel /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/

Not recommended for machines with multiple users.

Answer 5

This works for me

rm -f /usr/local/bin/easy_install
brew reinstall python
pip install --upgrade setuptools
pip install --upgrade pip

Answer 6

On Mavericks, I found that

ls -l `which python`
/usr/local/bin/python -> ../../../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python

while pip showed

ls -l `which pip`
/usr/local/bin/pip

I renamed the old pip and created a symlink to the proper pip binary, and now all is well. It's probably not the best solution, but it works.