callable-pip 1.0.0

callable-pip patches over the wide use of pip.main()

callable-pip

callable-pip provides a drop-in replacement for pip.main() and support for monkey-patching pip.main via a known-dangerous method.

pip.main() has never been a publicly supported API for pip, but it has often been used as such. This tiny package is meant to cover the gap and ease people’s transitions to new usage.

Drop-in Replacement for pip.main

This usage is always guaranteed to work on any supported python version with any functioning version of pip.

Instead of pip.main(...), use this method instead:

import callable_pip
callable_pip.main('install', '--upgrade', 'setuptools')

If you are writing a python program, you can just use callable_pip.main() yourself. This is the only guaranteed-safe usage.

Patching pip.main

callable-pip provides a patch which adds pip.main() back to pip, but which is dangerous and known not to work on some versions of pip:

import callable_pip
callable_pip.dangerous_patch()
...
import pip
pip.main('--version')  # actually invokes callable_pip.main()

If you have dependencies which use pip.main, you can call callable_pip.dangerous_patch() yourself and it will usually work.

dangerous_patch is so-named because it is not guaranteed to work on all pip versions and it is dangerous. Avoid it when possible.

Patching Without Control of Source

You may be a consumer of packages which use pip.main() in a context where you cannot modify or do not own any of the source. These techniques may help you.

More details on sitecustomize.py and .pth files can be found in the Python documentation: https://docs.python.org/3/library/site.html

Remember to remove these patches if you uninstall callable_pip, or Python will fail to start.

Applying the Patch With sitecustomize.py

sitecustomize.py can exist anywhere in the PYTHONPATH, including the directory where python is invoked.

Add a sitecustomize.py with the following content, or append it to an existing sitecustomize.py:

import callable_pip
callable_pip.dangerous_patch()

Applying the Patch With a .pth File

The .pth file can have any name you want, but must be installed in the site-packages directory. It may therefore require root or other elevated privileges to add.

Add a file, e.g. callable_pip.pth, with the following content:

import callable_pip; callable_pip.dangerous_patch()

Documentation

All documentation is in this readme doc.

Bug and Issue Reports

Submit all bug reports and issues here: https://github.com/sirosen/callable-pip/issues