Add pip to workspace software

[jemrobinson]

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:vertical_traffic_light: Depends on

n/a

:arrow_heading_up: Summary

Add python3-pip to the workspaces

:closed_umbrella: Related issues

n/a

:microscope: Tests

Not tested

[github-actions[bot]]

Coverage report

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[jemrobinson]

Sorry, I'm confused here. Isn't this the package that gives you the pip executable? What's that got to do with virtual environments vs. home directories?

[JimMadge]

python-pip provides pip globally and will by default install packages to ~/.local or /usr/.

It shouldn't be needed because we have python-venv which will put pip and setup-tools in a virtual environment when you create it. I think what we want to do is encourage people to always use python -m venv (or hatch, poetry, etc.) then pip inside that venv, never the global pip.

[jemrobinson]

Ah OK. So python-venv also provides pip then? I guess symlinked into the virtualenvs when you create them?

[JimMadge]

Yes, I'm not 100% certain how that works, however the venv has pip and when you activate it pip will be added to your path. So there will be pip in the venv but not globally.

(I think this is why pip always complains about being out of date now, because you have pip pinned to your python distribution so there is likely a newer version on PyPI).

[jemrobinson]

The entire content of the pip executable is just:

#!/home/james.robinson/testvenv/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import re
import sys
from pip._internal.cli.main import main
if __name__ == '__main__':
    sys.argv[0] = re.sub(r'(-script\.pyw|\.exe)?$', '', sys.argv[0])
    sys.exit(main())

so (after testing) it looks like python-venv just writes that to VENV_PATH/bin. It must be installing the pip package to site-packages from somewhere, but I'm not sure where.

[jemrobinson]

Working as intended.