Installing pipcmd

Installing pipcmd is as simple as installing the pipcmd script (./bin/pipcmd) in this source repository into a location in your PATH. You will also need to set PATH to include the ${HOME}/.pipcmd/bin directory, which is where pipcmd will install commands.

Using pipcmd

If the command you want to install is provided with a project with the same name as the command, simply ask pipcmd to install the project:

$ pipcmd install tox
Installing tox from tox[latest] using python
New python executable in /Users/wsanchez/.pipcmd/env/tox/latest/bin/python
...
Successfully installed pluggy-0.6.0 py-1.5.2 six-1.11.0 tox-2.9.1 virtualenv-15.1.0

If a project provides a command with a different name, or mutiple commands, add the names of the commands to install:

$ pipcmd install twisted trial twist
Installing trial twist from twisted[latest] using python
New python executable in /Users/wsanchez/.pipcmd/env/twisted/latest/bin/python
...
Successfully installed Automat-0.6.0 attrs-17.4.0 constantly-15.1.0 hyperlink-17.3.1 incremental-17.5.0 six-1.11.0 twisted-17.9.0 zope.interface-4.4.3

Note that pipcmd does not attempt to install every command provided by a project. This avoids adding unwanted commands to your path, and in cases where a command name is used by multiple projects, it lets you be specific about which to install.

pipcmd uses the python command found on the command line by default. A different interpreter can be specified:

$ pipcmd install -p python3 mypy
Installing mypy from mypy[latest] using python3
Using base prefix '/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5'
New python executable in /Users/wsanchez/.pipcmd/env/mypy/latest/bin/python3
...
Successfully installed mypy-0.560 psutil-5.4.3 typed-ast-1.1.0

pipcmd uses latest available version of a project by default. A project can be pinned to a specific version:

$ pipcmd install -v 15 twisted twistd
Installing twistd from twisted[15] using python
New python executable in /Users/wsanchez/.pipcmd/env/twisted/15/bin/python
...
Successfully installed twisted-15.0.0 zope.interface-4.4.3

Note that we’ve installed trial and twist from the latest version of Twisted, but twistd from Twisted 15. That may or may not be a good idea in this case, but pipcmd doesn’t judge.

To list the installed commands:

$ pipcmd list
mypy from mypy[latest] using CPython 3.5.3
tox from tox[latest] using CPython 2.7.10
trial from twisted[latest] using CPython 2.7.10
twist from twisted[latest] using CPython 2.7.10
twistd from twisted[15] using CPython 2.7.10

To remove commands:

$ pipcmd remove twist twistd
Removing: twist from twisted[latest] using CPython 2.7.10
Removing: twistd from twisted[15] using CPython 2.7.10