Hey geeks! Let us start our discussion on today’s topic. If you are a python developer, you must have understood our agenda after reading the title. But if you are a beginner to python, then no worries; today, we will have our detailed discussion on what PIP and PIP3 are, when and how to use PIP and PIP3, the PIP vs PIP3 comparison, and a lot more.
So if you want to understand PIP and PIP3, then you are in the right place. So, let’s get started.
What is PIP in python?
Pip is the standard package manager for Python. It allows us to install and manage additional packages that are not part of the Python standard library.
Package management is so important that pip has been included with the Python installer since versions 3.4 for Python 3 and 2.7.9 for Python 2, and it’s used by many Python projects, which makes it an essential tool for every Pythonista.
The concept of a package manager might be familiar to you if you are coming from other languages. JavaScript uses npm for package management, Ruby uses gem, and .NET uses NuGet. In Python, pip has become the standard package manager.
To check the version of pip
python -m pip version
pip 21.1.1 from C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.9_3.9.1520.0_x64__qbz5n2kfra8p0\lib\site-packages\pip (python 3.9)
You should see a similar output displaying the pip version, the location, and version of Python.
To learn in detail how to check the python version in different OS, click here.
Why install pip3 instead of using easy_install?
It’s definitely worth your time to install pip3. Remember: PIP was designed to be a replacement for easy_install and to solve many of the problems it caused.
Here are some reasons you should definitely install pip3:
- Because all packages are downloaded before installation, you never run into the problem of installations being only partially completed.
- When you install pip3, it is easy to keep track of why you wanted to install a package in the first place because PIP keeps track of that information.
- The error messages speed up the learning process and make it easier to figure out why things might have gone wrong.
- Packages can be installed flat and don’t need to be installed as egg packages.
- With pip3, it’s easier to define fixed requirements, so you can reliably produce packages.
- The distribution package that included easy_install is no longer maintained. Instead, it was absorbed into setup tools. So, if you try to install distribute, you’ll only end up installing setup tools instead.
When and How to Use PIP and PIP3 in Python?
You can find the packages to download and install in the PyPI (Python Package Index) repository. Still, you can set up your repositories and install packages from them using the standard PIP tool. Moreover, you can create your package, publish it on PyPI, and make it available for installation by all Python users.
Typically, in manuals and instructions, package installation is written as:
pip install package_name
However, you may also see other options, such as pip3 install instead of pip install. So how do you correctly install packages on your system, and what is the difference between PIP and PIP3?
When you type pip in the console, the system looks for an executable file with that name in the current folder and then in the folders specified in the system PATH variable.
If you have multiple Python installations and all of them are in your PATH, you cannot be sure which directory will be searched first. This is because the Python installation directory has duplicate executables whose names contain the Python version.
For example, for the installed Python 3.9, these will be pip, pip3, and pip3.9. So, you can install the necessary modules for the desired version of Python.
Basically, if you type pip install package_name, you will get exactly the output you intended.
PIP Vs PIP3 What’s the Difference?
| PIP | PIP3 |
| PIP is a soft link for a particular installer. | pip3 is an updated version of pip which is used basically for python 3+. |
| The system will use one of your Python versions depending on what exactly is first in the system PATH variable. | When you run PIP3, you can be sure that the module will be installed in Python 3. |
| if I use pip, the package will be installed for the python version that I installed last on my computer. That would be 3.9 for my case. So using pip and using pip3.9 will produce the same result for me. | If I use pip3, the package will only be installed for python3. It won’t be available for 2.7 or 2.9. |
To install packages in python3, should we use pip or pip3?
Pip3 is the Python3 version of pip.
If you use pip, then only the python2.7 version will be installed. You have to use pip3 for it to be installed on Python3. So to install packages in python3, you should use pip3.
NOTE:- Its not necessary that pip will install in python 2.7, if python2 is absent then pip will do it in python3. The above statement was if you have both the version of python installed.
If you are a Linux user, then you can use the ‘which’ command to check which pip is installed. For example,
which pip
This command, if you enter into the Linux terminal, you will get to know about the version pip installed and the version of python. Otherwise, you may encounter an error if you have not installed pip.
To check for pip3:
which pip3
This command, if you enter into the Linux terminal, you will get to know about the version pip3 installed and the version of python. Otherwise, you may encounter an error if you have not installed pip3.
Conclusion
Python is one of the most intuitive programming languages for beginners, and it’s just generally a great programming language to have under your belt. However, to get the most out of it, you’ll definitely want to get solid web hosting and understand the difference between pip vs pip3 using this easy guide.
If you have any doubts regarding today’s article, feel free to comment down below. Till then, keep pythoning geeks!
The post PIP vs PIP3: What is the Difference? appeared first on Python Pool.
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