When using sudo to run pip "pip: command not found" but it's installed

Question

sudo easy_install pip

Searching for pip
Best match: pip 1.4.1
Processing pip-1.4.1-py2.7.egg
pip 1.4.1 is already the active version in easy-install.pth
Installing pip script to /home/nyzlfc/.local/bin
Installing pip-2.7 script to /home/nyzlfc/.local/bin
Using /home/nyzlfc/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.4.1-py2.7.egg
Processing dependencies for pip
Finished processing dependencies for pip

And then when I run

sudo pip install -U pyyaml nltk

I get:

sudo: pip: command not found

Solution 1

If you install pip from the Ubuntu repositories pip will work with sudo (I have used pip this way on 12.04 through to 14.04).

sudo apt-get install python-pip

Solution 2

Your pip is installed in /home/nyzlfc/.local/bin, which is not in the sudo path and with a good reason. Just add ~/.local/bin to your path and step away of sudo as it's unnecessary.

Solution 3

I had the same problem, and the reason I had this problem (on Debian) is that I installed python3.2 and python3-pip and as such, I really didn't have a pip executable, I also didn't have a pip3 executable. I have pip-3.2 executable.

As such I would also recommend doing:

sudo pip

and then pressing the tab to see the autocomplete options.

Solution 4

First check your $PATH variable using the echo command:

$ echo $PATH

If /usr/local/bin is missing, edit the hidden file .profile, located in your home directory. If this file is missing, edit .bash_profile instead.

Add as very last PATH statement the following line:

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin

Solution 5

Instead of doing pip install <package name>

Try pip3 install <package name>

View more solutions

Comments

[lazyPower]

You dont always need to use sudo to install python modules. you can scope them to your user using pip install --user ipdb (for example) - from there, they are installed to ~/.local/lib/python-ver/ and the bins are placed in ~/.local/bin/ so add ~/.local/bin to your $PATH and you're g2g with non-sudo use of pip.

[NGRhodes]

Good point, I was working on the fact the question was using sudo, that installing with sudo was desired. I generally do as my code is used by different users on the same system

[Almir Campos]

+1 sudo pip and then pressing tab to see the autocomplete options... did the job for me.

[Conjecture]

This is not working for me, Ubuntu 20.0.4

[Ng Sek Long]

20.04 use this sudo apt install python3-pip, then use pip3 install xxx to install your packages

[Dinesh Singh]

You saved my day. Thanks a ton for the answer