How to install python3 version of package via pip

Question

I have both python2.7 and python3.2 installed in Ubuntu 12.04.
The symbolic link python links to python2.7.

When I type:

sudo pip install package-name

It will default install python2 version of package-name.

Some package supports both python2 and python3.
How to install python3 version of package-name via pip?

Answer 1

I had the same problem while trying to install pylab, and I have found this link

So what I have done to install pylab within Python 3 is:

python3 -m pip install SomePackage

It has worked properly, and as you can see in the link you can do this for every Python version you have, so I guess this solves your problem.

Answer 2

Firstly, you need to install pip for the Python 3 installation that you want. Then you run that pip to install packages for that Python version.

Since you have both pip and python 3 in /usr/bin, I assume they are both installed with a package manager of some sort. That package manager should also have a Python 3 pip. That's the one you should install.

Felix' recommendation of virtualenv is a good one. If you are only testing, or you are doing development, then you shouldn't install the package in the system python. Using virtualenv, or even building your own Pythons for development, is better in those cases.

But if you actually do want to install this package in the system python, installing pip for Python 3 is the way to go.

Answer 3

Although the question relates to Ubuntu, let me contribute by saying that I'm on Mac and my python command defaults to Python 2.7.5. I have Python 3 as well, accessible via python3, so knowing the pip package origin, I just downloaded it and issued sudo python3 setup.py install against it and, surely enough, only Python 3 has now this module inside its site packages. Hope this helps a wandering Mac-stranger.

Answer 4

You may want to build a virtualenv of python3, then install packages of python3 after activating the virtualenv. So your system won't be messed up :)

This could be something like:

virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python3 py3env
source py3env/bin/activate
pip install package-name

Answer 5

Old question, but none of the answers satisfies me. One of my systems is running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and for some reason there's no package python3-pip or python-pip for Python 3. So here is what I've done (all commands were executed as root):

• Install setuptools for Python3 in case you haven't.

  apt-get install python3-setuptools
  

  or

  aptitude install python3-setuptools
  

• With Python 2.4+ you can invoke easy_install with specific Python version by using python -m easy_install. So pip for Python 3 could be installed by:

  python3 -m easy_install pip
  

• That's it, you got pip for Python 3. Now just invoke pip with the specific version of Python to install package for Python 3. For example, with Python 3.2 installed on my system, I used:

  pip-3.2 install [package]
  

Answer 6

Ubuntu 12.10+ and Fedora 13+ have a package called python3-pip which will install pip-3.2 (or pip-3.3, pip-3.4 or pip3 for newer versions) without needing this jumping through hoops.

---

I came across this and fixed this without needing the likes of wget or virtualenvs (assuming Ubuntu 12.04):

1. Install package python3-setuptools: run sudo aptitude install python3-setuptools, this will give you the command easy_install3.
2. Install pip using Python 3's setuptools: run sudo easy_install3 pip, this will give you the command pip-3.2 like kev's solution.
3. Install your PyPI packages: run sudo pip-3.2 install <package> (installing python packages into your base system requires root, of course).
4. …
5. Profit!