pipask 0.9.2

Safer python package installation with audit and consent before install

pipask: pip with informed consent

Installation

The recommended way to install pipask is with pipx so that pipask dependencies are isolated from the rest of your system:

pipx install pipask

Alternatively, you can install it using pip:

pip install pipask

Usage

1. Once installed, you can use pipask as a drop-in replacement for pip, e.g.,:

   pipask install 'requests>=2.0.0'
   

2. pipask will perform checks on the packages to be installed.
3. You will get a report with the results and be prompted whether to continue with the installation.
4. If you proceed, pipask will hand over the actual installation to pip.

To run checks without installing, you can use the --dry-run flag:

pipask install requests --dry-run

In order to use pipask as a drop-in replacement for pip, you can alias pip to point to pipask so you don't have to remember to use it. Just add

alias pip='pipask'

to your shell configuration file (~/.bashrc , ~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, etc.). You can always fall back on your native pip with python -m pip if pipask doesn't work for any reason.

Checks

• Popularity of the source repository as measured by the number of stars on GitHub or GitLab (warning below 1000 stars)
• Package and release age (warning for packages with no release older than 22 days, or for releases older than 365 days)
• Known vulnerabilities in the package available in PyPI (failure for HIGH or CRITICAL vulnerabilities, warning for MODERATE vulnerabilities)
• Check for development status and yanked status in PyPI metadata
• Number of downloads from PyPI in the last month (warning below 1000 downloads; take this with a grain of sault for reasons outlined in PyPI documentation)
• License availability

All checks are executed for requested (i.e., explicitly specified) packages. Only the known vulnerabilities check is executed for transitive dependencies.

Feel free to contribute or open an issue to request more checks.

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development guidance.