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Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2025 12:53:16 -0400
Message-ID: <CACggcZS6bh_NRUix+Ry0tD5gU=oX6c+DZXqkLfUwydhqBJS15w@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Irritating artifacts of the python variety
To: Soren <somian08 AT gmail DOT com>
Cc: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
From: Dave Trombley via Cygwin <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
Reply-To: Dave Trombley <dave DOT trombley AT gmail DOT com>
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Sender: "Cygwin" <cygwin-bounces~archive-cygwin=delorie DOT com AT cygwin DOT com>
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Hi Soren!

   You will likely break things if you link the system 'pip' like that, the
tools installed on the system are not in the default path for a reason.

   Please strongly consider using virtual environments when doing any sort
of Python development - this is near universal / standard now.
   This way, you will be running the tools (including pip) located in your
venv, and not the site-installed tools.

   Otherwise, your python repositories themselves will be site-wide, and
you will run into problems with dependency conflicts and other nasty
python-specific CI issues.

   See https://python.land/virtual-environments/virtualenv and
https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html for more.

   Best of luck!


On Fri, Aug 22, 2025 at 12:39 PM Soren via Cygwin <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com> wrote:

> Hello Cygwinistas,
>
> This is especially directed to the maintainer of the python
> tool/module  "pip" on cygwin, who may or may not be the maintainer of
> python as a whole. I'm not very skilled with python yet. I do,
> however, have an observation to make (or call it a complaint).  I went
> to install a python package (not one carried on cygwin): html2text.
> The install command is `pip install html2text'. I didn't seem to have
> "pip" installed (notice the "seem" por favor). So I started
> setup-x86_64 and worked through the process of installing "pip". I am
> working with python3 so I tried to select a "pip" that corresponded
> with it.
>
> But after installing it I still didn't have the "pip" command. Finally
> I used cygcheck to check for what files are installed by setup for
> that package, let's see:  cygcheck -f /usr/bin/pip3.12
> python312-pip-25.0.1-2 -- is the package I installed. The package's
> setup does not include installing a command named "pip"!!! It was an
> hours work to figure this out. When I finally understood the simple
> and obvious thing to do: check /usr/bin/ for pips (!), I discovered a
> whole flock of pips lurking in there:
>
> d999db900a30a48b3823c5c31d25e13c *pip   <-- I made a hard link to
> pip3.12 as the md5sums show
> d999db900a30a48b3823c5c31d25e13c *pip3.12
> 45215ed1028f23dee3c6c24aa9824a63 *pip3.6
> d999db900a30a48b3823c5c31d25e13c *pip3
> a22904009720072190a8f73e0dbe6946 *pip3.9
> 58febe00b52b2562415e6949c36d3bf0 *pip2
> 58febe00b52b2562415e6949c36d3bf0 *pip2.7
>
> No offense intended, but why would there be multiple pips left over
> from earlier installations? -- this is just poor attention to detail
> and coupled with the non-obvious absence of a "pip" it is much more
> work than one ought  to have to do.
> --
> Soren 'tino
> He's earthy, he's pithy, he's ...a bit astringent.
> Think of him more as a "topical antiseptic" than as a snack.
>
> --
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