Hi Soren! You will likely break things if you link the system 'pip' like that, the tools installed on the system are not in the default path for a reason.
Please strongly consider using virtual environments when doing any sort of Python development - this is near universal / standard now. This way, you will be running the tools (including pip) located in your venv, and not the site-installed tools. Otherwise, your python repositories themselves will be site-wide, and you will run into problems with dependency conflicts and other nasty python-specific CI issues. See https://python.land/virtual-environments/virtualenv and https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html for more. Best of luck! On Fri, Aug 22, 2025 at 12:39 PM Soren via Cygwin <cygwin@cygwin.com> wrote: > Hello Cygwinistas, > > This is especially directed to the maintainer of the python > tool/module "pip" on cygwin, who may or may not be the maintainer of > python as a whole. I'm not very skilled with python yet. I do, > however, have an observation to make (or call it a complaint). I went > to install a python package (not one carried on cygwin): html2text. > The install command is `pip install html2text'. I didn't seem to have > "pip" installed (notice the "seem" por favor). So I started > setup-x86_64 and worked through the process of installing "pip". I am > working with python3 so I tried to select a "pip" that corresponded > with it. > > But after installing it I still didn't have the "pip" command. Finally > I used cygcheck to check for what files are installed by setup for > that package, let's see: cygcheck -f /usr/bin/pip3.12 > python312-pip-25.0.1-2 -- is the package I installed. The package's > setup does not include installing a command named "pip"!!! It was an > hours work to figure this out. When I finally understood the simple > and obvious thing to do: check /usr/bin/ for pips (!), I discovered a > whole flock of pips lurking in there: > > d999db900a30a48b3823c5c31d25e13c *pip <-- I made a hard link to > pip3.12 as the md5sums show > d999db900a30a48b3823c5c31d25e13c *pip3.12 > 45215ed1028f23dee3c6c24aa9824a63 *pip3.6 > d999db900a30a48b3823c5c31d25e13c *pip3 > a22904009720072190a8f73e0dbe6946 *pip3.9 > 58febe00b52b2562415e6949c36d3bf0 *pip2 > 58febe00b52b2562415e6949c36d3bf0 *pip2.7 > > No offense intended, but why would there be multiple pips left over > from earlier installations? -- this is just poor attention to detail > and coupled with the non-obvious absence of a "pip" it is much more > work than one ought to have to do. > -- > Soren 'tino > He's earthy, he's pithy, he's ...a bit astringent. > Think of him more as a "topical antiseptic" than as a snack. > > -- > Problem reports: https://cygwin.com/problems.html > FAQ: https://cygwin.com/faq/ > Documentation: https://cygwin.com/docs.html > Unsubscribe info: https://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple > -- Problem reports: https://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: https://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: https://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: https://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
