“OSError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted” when

Question

I'm trying to install Scrapy Python framework in OSX 10.11 (El Capitan) via pip. The installation script downloads the required modules and at some point returns the following error:

OSError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/tmp/pip-nIfswi-uninstall/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/six-1.4.1-py2.7.egg-info'

I've tried to deactivate the rootless feature in OSX 10.11 with the command:

sudo nvram boot-args="rootless=0";sudo reboot

but I still get the same error when the machine reboots.

Any clue or idea from my fellow StackExchangers?

If it helps, the full script output is the following:

sudo -s pip install scrapy
Collecting scrapy
  Downloading Scrapy-1.0.2-py2-none-any.whl (290kB)
    100% |████████████████████████████████| 290kB 345kB/s 
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): cssselect>=0.9 in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from scrapy)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): queuelib in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from scrapy)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): pyOpenSSL in /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python (from scrapy)
Collecting w3lib>=1.8.0 (from scrapy)
  Downloading w3lib-1.12.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Collecting lxml (from scrapy)
  Downloading lxml-3.4.4.tar.gz (3.5MB)
    100% |████████████████████████████████| 3.5MB 112kB/s 
Collecting Twisted>=10.0.0 (from scrapy)
  Downloading Twisted-15.3.0.tar.bz2 (4.4MB)
    100% |████████████████████████████████| 4.4MB 94kB/s 
Collecting six>=1.5.2 (from scrapy)
  Downloading six-1.9.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): zope.interface>=3.6.0 in /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python (from Twisted>=10.0.0->scrapy)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): setuptools in /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python (from zope.interface>=3.6.0->Twisted>=10.0.0->scrapy)
Installing collected packages: six, w3lib, lxml, Twisted, scrapy
  Found existing installation: six 1.4.1
    DEPRECATION: Uninstalling a distutils installed project (six) has been deprecated and will be removed in a future version. This is due to the fact that uninstalling a distutils project will only partially uninstall the project.
    Uninstalling six-1.4.1:
Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/pip-7.1.0-py2.7.egg/pip/basecommand.py", line 223, in main
status = self.run(options, args)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/pip-7.1.0-py2.7.egg/pip/commands/install.py", line 299, in run
root=options.root_path,
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/pip-7.1.0-py2.7.egg/pip/req/req_set.py", line 640, in install
requirement.uninstall(auto_confirm=True)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/pip-7.1.0-py2.7.egg/pip/req/req_install.py", line 726, in uninstall
paths_to_remove.remove(auto_confirm)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/pip-7.1.0-py2.7.egg/pip/req/req_uninstall.py", line 125, in remove
renames(path, new_path)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/pip-7.1.0-py2.7.egg/pip/utils/__init__.py", line 314, in renames
shutil.move(old, new)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/shutil.py", line 302, in move
copy2(src, real_dst)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/shutil.py", line 131, in copy2
copystat(src, dst)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/shutil.py", line 103, in copystat
os.chflags(dst, st.st_flags)
OSError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/tmp/pip-nIfswi-uninstall/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/six-1.4.1-py2.7.egg-info'

Answer 1

The high voted answers didn't work for me, it seems to work for El Capitan users. But for MacOS Sierra users try the following steps

1. brew install python
2. sudo pip install --user <package name>

Answer 2

Tried a combination of some answers and this eventually worked:

sudo -H pip install --upgrade --ignore-installed awsebcli

Cheers

Answer 3

it work for me:

pip install scrapy --user -U

Answer 4

I was getting the same error on on my MacOS Sierra. I followed these steps and successfully able to install scarpy package.

1. sudo pip install --ignore-installed six
2. sudo pip install --ignore-installed scrapy

MacBook-Air:~ shree$ scrapy version
Scrapy 1.4.0

Answer 5

install python again:

brew install python

try it again:

sudo pip install scrapy

works for me, hope it can help

Answer 6

Warnings

I would suggest very strongly against modifying the system Python on Mac; there are numerous issues that can occur.

Your particular error shows that the installer has issues resolving the dependencies for Scrapy without impacting the current Python installation. The system uses Python for a number of essential tasks, so it's important to keep the system installation stable and as originally installed by Apple.

I would also exhaust all other possibilities before bypassing built in security.

Package Manager Solutions:

Please look into a Python virtualization tool such as virtualenv first; this will allow you to experiment safely.

Another useful tool to use languages and software without conflicting with your Mac OS is Homebrew. Like MacPorts or Fink, Homebrew is a package manager for Mac, and is useful for safely trying lots of other languages and tools.

"Roll your own" Software Installs:

If you don't like the package manager approach, you could use the /usr/local path or create an /opt/local directory for installing an alternate Python installation and fix up your paths in your .bashrc. Note that you'll have to enable root for these solutions.

How to do it anyway:

If you absolutely must disable the security check (and I sincerely hope it's for something other than messing with the system languages and resources), you can disable it temporarily and re-enable it using some of the techniques in this post on how to Disable System Integrity-Protection.