How to install a module for all users with pip on linux?

Question

How to install a package in the standard python environment i.e. /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages using pip and make this new package available for all the users without using virtualenv?

By using the following, the package is installed with root permissions only:

$ sudo pip install loremipsum
Downloading/unpacking loremipsum
  Downloading loremipsum-1.0.5.tar.gz
  Running setup.py (path:/tmp/pip_build_root/loremipsum/setup.py) 
  egg_info for package loremipsum
    
Installing collected packages: loremipsum
  Running setup.py install for loremipsum
    
Successfully installed loremipsum
Cleaning up...

Proof:

$ python -c 'import loremipsum'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named loremipsum

$ sudo python -c 'import loremipsum'

$ pip install loremipsum
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): loremipsum in 
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages
Cleaning up...

$ cowsay sad
 _____
< sad >
 -----
           ^__^
           (oo)_______
            (__)       )/
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

Please do not advise me to use apt-get install python-... instead. I would like to know what is my mistake and how to use pip correctly.

$ python --version
Python 2.7.6
$ pip --version
pip 1.5.4 from /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (python 2.7)
$ uname -a
Linux _ 3.19.0-32-generic #37~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP _ x86_64 GNU/Linux

EDIT

I guess the problem is because pip does not allow the group and everyone to read the installed stuff:

$ sudo pip uninstall loremipsum
Uninstalling loremipsum:
  /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/loremipsum-1.0.5.egg-info
  /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/loremipsum/__init__.py
  /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/loremipsum/__init__.pyc
  /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/loremipsum/default/dictionary.txt
  /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/loremipsum/default/sample.txt
  /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/loremipsum/generator.py
  /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/loremipsum/generator.pyc
Proceed (y/n)? y
  Successfully uninstalled loremipsum

$ sudo pip install loremipsum
Downloading/unpacking loremipsum
  Downloading loremipsum-1.0.5.tar.gz
  Running setup.py (path:/tmp/pip_build_root/loremipsum/setup.py) 
  egg_info for package loremipsum
    
Installing collected packages: loremipsum
  Running setup.py install for loremipsum
    
Successfully installed loremipsum
Cleaning up...
$ sudo ls -al /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/loremipsum
total 60
drwxr-s---  3 root staff  4096 Apr 27 22:06 .
drwxrwsr-x 18 root staff  4096 Apr 27 22:06 ..
drwxr-s---  2 root staff  4096 Apr 27 22:06 default
-rw-r-----  1 root staff 16182 Apr 27 22:06 generator.py
-rw-r-----  1 root staff 16323 Apr 27 22:06 generator.pyc
-rw-r-----  1 root staff  6130 Apr 27 22:06 __init__.py
-rw-r-----  1 root staff  6869 Apr 27 22:06 __init__.pyc

Asked By: nowox

||

Source

Answer 1

Use the --target option when calling pip

pip install --target=/your/pyinstalldir loremipsum

The target directory must be a location writable by your user.

Note that this requires the regular user environment has the target directory present in the sys.path. One possible way to achieve that is by using the PYTHONPATH env var:

# /etc/profile.d/myenvvars.sh
export PYTHONPATH=/your/pyinstalldir

Answered By: wim

Answer 2

You might have a wrong umask set as discussed here

From your last edit, I guess you umask is set to 027. Try to do

sudo pip uninstall loremipsum
umask 022
sudo pip install loremipsum

Answered By: nowox

Answer 3

With Ubuntu 18.04, using the command sudo pip install stuff-name does not suffice, in my case, in order to install the modules in the global path (it keeps looking at the local-user python path).

Solution in my case

I have changed to the root user, and changed directory to its home. Then pip installation worked like expected and installs modules in the global path.

In detail I followed the nowox answer with a minor change (sudo su, changes to the root user), also see final note about umask 022:

sudo su
cd ~
umask 022
pip install what-you-like

Note: umask 022 command/row could be optional…, usually umask is already 022, that is the default one.

Answered By: Fabiano Tarlao

Answer 4

For Ubuntu 18.04 try sudo -H pip install loremipsum.

-H is the short form of --set-home:

-H, --set-home
     Request that the security policy set the HOME environment variable
     to the home directory specified by the target user's password 
     database entry.  Depending on the policy, this may be the default
     behavior.

In other words, this executes the sudo command with the HOME environment var set to root’s home.

Answered By: Nathan McKaskle

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