pip3: command not found but python3-pip is already

Question

I can't use pip3 though python3-pip has already been installed. How to solve the problem?

sudo pip3 install virtualenv
sudo: pip3: command not found

sudo apt-get install python3-pip
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
python3-pip is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 11 not upgraded.

Answer 1

Run

locate pip3

it should give you a list of results like this

/<path>/pip3
/<path>/pip3.x

go to /usr/local/bin to make a symbolic link to where your pip3 is located

ln -s /<path>/pip3.x /usr/local/bin/pip3

Answer 2

You can use python3 -m pip as a synonym for pip3. That has saved me a couple of times.

Answer 3

I had a similar issue. In my case, I had to uninstall and then reinstall pip3:

sudo apt-get remove python3-pip
sudo apt-get install python3-pip

Answer 4

There is no need to install virtualenv. Just create a workfolder and open your editor in it. Assuming you are using vscode,

$mkdir Directory && cd Directory
$code .

It is the best way to avoid breaking Ubuntu/linux dependencies by messing around with environments. In case anything goes wrong, you can always delete that folder and begin afresh. Otherwise, messing up with the ubuntu/linux python environments could mess up system apps/OS (including the terminal). Then you can press shift+P and type python:select interpreter. Choose any version above 3. After that you can do

$pip3 -v

It will display the pip version. You can then use it for installations as

$pip3 install Library

Answer 5

Same issue on Fedora 23. I had to reinstall python3-pip to generate the proper pip3 folders in /usr/bin/.

sudo dnf reinstall python3-pip