Install pip failed

Question

i am using redhat 5.3

I using following command to update python to 2.7. (it was python 2.4 before update)

# xz -d Python-2.7.6.tar.xz
# tar xvf Python-2.7.6.tar
# cd Python-2.7.6/
# ./configure 
# make && make install

And I Install the python-setuptools

# yum install python-setuptools

Then I install the pip print the error

         ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.4.egg/pip/_vendor/colorama/__init__.py", line 2
    from .initialise import init, deinit, reinit
         ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.4.egg/pip/_vendor/colorama/winterm.py", line 2
    from . import win32
         ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Adding pip 1.5.6 to easy-install.pth file
Installing pip script to /usr/bin
Installing pip2 script to /usr/bin
Installing pip2.4 script to /usr/bin

Installed /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.4.egg
Processing dependencies for pip

And I run the command pip , it print following errors:

# pip
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/pip", line 5, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg/pkg_resources.py", line 2603, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg/pkg_resources.py", line 666, in require
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg/pkg_resources.py", line 565, in resolve
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: pip==1.5.6

And I try to uninstall that, it tell me that:

[root@linkea-dev-srv1 /]# yum remove pip
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Repository base is listed more than once in the configuration
Setting up Remove Process
No Match for argument: pip
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
No Packages marked for removal
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root

So I try to reinstall pip by python get-pip.py. It also has error.

# python get-pip.py 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "get-pip.py", line 17474, in <module>
    main()
  File "get-pip.py", line 17466, in main
    bootstrap(tmpdir=tmpdir)
  File "get-pip.py", line 17406, in bootstrap
    import pip
  File "/tmp/tmpB9jhvw/pip.zip/pip/__init__.py", line 9, in <module>
  File "/tmp/tmpB9jhvw/pip.zip/pip/log.py", line 9, in <module>
  File "/tmp/tmpB9jhvw/pip.zip/pip/_vendor/colorama/__init__.py", line 2, in <module>
  File "/tmp/tmpB9jhvw/pip.zip/pip/_vendor/colorama/initialise.py", line 5, in <module>
  File "/tmp/tmpB9jhvw/pip.zip/pip/_vendor/colorama/ansitowin32.py", line 6, in <module>
  File "/tmp/tmpB9jhvw/pip.zip/pip/_vendor/colorama/winterm.py", line 2, in <module>
  File "/tmp/tmpB9jhvw/pip.zip/pip/_vendor/colorama/win32.py", line 7, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/ctypes/__init__.py", line 10, in <module>
    from _ctypes import Union, Structure, Array
ImportError: No module named _ctypes

Answer 1

You should be very careful when upgrading Python on RedHat (including Fedora/CentOS) because a large majority of the system applications rely on the bundled version of Python. This is especially true of yum, which relies on the version of Python that comes bundled with the operating system.

In short - if you upgrade the version of Python on RedHat/CentOS/Fedora, yum will not work correctly.

To install a different version of Python on these distributions, you have two main options. One is to find someone that has released a rpm, download an install that; but you may have to deal with dependencies on your own.

The other (simpler) option is to download the source of Python, compile it and then install it separately (using altinstall).

You'll need to install the following packages first:

• yum groupinstall "Development tools"
• yum install zlib-devel bzip2-devel openssl-devel ncurses-devel

Next, download the source and extract it. As of this writing, the latest version is 2.7.8:

• wget "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.8/Python-2.7.8.xz"
• tar xvf Python-2.7.8.xz
• cd Python-2.7.8

Now you have to build and install Python to an alternate location, with the following:

• ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
• make && make altinstall

Once this is done, you'll have /usr/local/bin/python2.7 available to you. Next, you'll want to install pip for this version of Python. To do that, first install setuptools:

• wget "https://bitbucket.org/pypa/setuptools/raw/bootstrap/ez_setup.py"
• /usr/local/bin/python2.7 ez_setup.py
• /usr/local/bin/easy_install-2.7 pip

The final step is to make sure that this version of Python is available to you. You can add /usr/local/bin/ to your $PATH by modifying your shell's environment (for example, adding it in $HOME/.bashrc); or you can as root create symbolic links in /usr/bin/ to these utilities. Make sure you give them version-specific tags:

• ln -sf /usr/local/bin/python2.7 /usr/bin/python2.7
• ln -sf /usr/local/bin/pip /usr/local/bin/pip2.7

This will keep your default Python to the system's version (recommended), and then give you the option to use 2.7 when needed.