On 14/07/2026 01:32, David Niklas wrote:
(Sorry for not replying to everyone sooner, I seem to have been
unsubscribed from the list -- or maybe the digests are taking >3 days to
arrive.)
On Mon, 13 Jul 2026 22:45:33 +0200
Jan Claeys <[email protected]> wrote:
On Fri, 2026-07-10 at 13:48 -0400, David Niklas wrote:
I wanted to install a python pip wheel file globally without breaking
my system packages. I tried searching online, but I cannot figure out
how to do that.
How do you install a .whl file globally in debian without breaking
system packages?
Is it something that is also packaged in Debian?
It's the VapourSynth package. And it's not in Debian -- though I could
get it through the multimedia repo.
If it helps:
❯ uvx vapoursynth
Installed 1 package in 62ms
usage: vapoursynth [-h] COMMAND ...
VapourSynth command line utility.
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
commands:
COMMAND
config Write or update the VapourSynth runtime
configuration
check-env Show the current VapourSynth environment status
get-vsscript Print the bundled VSScript library path
get-include Print the bundled include directory
get-pkgconfig-dir Print the bundled pkgconfig directory
get-plugin-dir Print the bundled plugin directory
register-install Register the current installation in the user
environment
Examples:
vapoursynth config
vapoursynth check-env
vapoursynth get-plugin-dir
The same works if I run `pipx run vapoursynth`. PIPX (native python,
slightly older) and UVX (rust, and a bit newer) both run applications
directly from PyPI without installation (strictly, they install into a
temporary virtual environment). If you find you use vapoursynth
regularly, you can run either "pipx install vapoursynth" or "uv tool
install vapoursynth" to get the tool added to your path.
How much easier this query has become now you've told us which wheel
you're trying to install. :)
Why do you think it will break system packages?
Because I get this big wall of scary text saying so...
########################################
# pip install ./dist/vapoursynth-77-cp313-abi3-linux_x86_64.whl
error: externally-managed-environment
This environment is externally managed
-> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install
python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
install.
If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package,
create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make
sure you have python3-full installed.
If you wish to install a non-Debian packaged Python application,
it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a
virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.
See /usr/share/doc/python3.13/README.venv for more information.
note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python
installation or OS distribution provider. You can override this, at the
risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing
--break-system-packages. hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed specification.
########################################
Thanks
