How can I run Python as root (or sudo) while still using my local pip?

Question

pip is recommended to be run under local user, not root. This means if you do sudo python ..., you will not have access to your Python libs installed via pip.

How can I run Python (or a pip installed bin/ command) under root / sudo (when needed) while having access to my pip libraries?

Apply

To clarify, this question is about how to run Python as root while still having access to distributions installed as pip install --user? – Hershberger

Would using a virtual environment instead be an option, or is using user site-packages required? – Hershberger

Related information for future visitors: What are the risks of running 'sudo pip'? – Hershberger

This feels like a case where modifying PYTHONPATH to include the user site-packages at the start of the script might actually be the correct answer, but virtual environments should be investigated first. – Birthplace

@Birthplace Can you elaborate on that approach, into a full answer? set | grep PYTHONPATH seemed empty. – Apply

@Apply I'll add an answer. PYTHONPATH isn't typically defined by default. I think using a virtual environment is probably still the best answer, but this may be an alternative – Birthplace

Answer 1

So the issue you're likely having is that you have pip installed the packages you want to a user specific site-packages directory, which then isn't being included in the sys.path module search list generated by sites.py when Python starts up for the root user.

There are a couple of workaround for this to add the additional paths to be searched for modules.

1. Use the PYTHONPATH environment variable. This should be set to semi-colon delimited and terminated list of paths.
2. Directly modify sys.path at the start of your script before running any other imports. I often see this proposed on SO as a workaround around by people who haven't really grasped absolute vs relative imports.

I have an example here using both methods. I'm on Windows in a virtual environment, but the principles would be the same in Linux.

Setup:

(venv) 
~/PythonVenv/playground311 (main)
$ export PYTHONPATH="C:\Path\From\PythonPath\;E:\Second\PythonPath\Path\;"

Start of script:

import sys

# Insert at position 1 as position 0 is this script's directory.
sys.path.insert(1, r"C:\Path\Inserted\By\Script")

for path in sys.path:
    print(path)

Output

c:\Users\nighanxiety\PythonVenv\playground311
C:\Path\Inserted\By\Script
C:\Path\From\PythonPath
E:\Second\PythonPath\Path
C:\Users\nighanxiety\PythonVenv\playground311
C:\python311\python311.zip
C:\python311\DLLs
C:\python311\Lib
C:\python311
C:\Users\nighanxiety\PythonVenv\playground311\venv
C:\Users\nighanxiety\PythonVenv\playground311\venv\Lib\site-packages

If I weren't in a virtual environment, the last few entries are different:

C:\Users\nighanxiety\PythonVenv\playground311
C:\Path\Inserted\By\Script
C:\Path\From\PythonPath
E:\Second\PythonPath\Path
C:\Users\nighanxiety\PythonVenv\playground311
C:\Python311\python311.zip
C:\Python311\Lib
C:\Python311\DLLs
C:\Python311
C:\Python311\Lib\site-packages

I strongly recommend trying a virtual environment and using pip to install the desired packages there first, as Sauron suggests in his answer. The root user should still correctly use the virtual environment paths as long as the environment is activated. See How does activating a python virtual environment modify sys.path for more info.

If that doesn't work, then configuring PYTHONPATH with the correct absolute path to your site-packages should be a better option than hacking sys.path. Modifying sys.path makes sense if a specific override is needed for that specific script, but is otherwise a bit of a hack.

Birthplace

Answer 2

• Running Python as root or using sudo can be risky, as it grants elevated privileges to the Python interpreter and any scripts or commands executed within it. So it should be inspected first before running.
• Still if you want to run Python as root or with sudo while maintaining access to your pip libraries
• Create a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv myenv

• Activate the virtual environment:

source myenv/bin/activate

• install necessary packages using pip:

pip install package_name

• Run Python as root or with sudo, use the full path to the Python interpreter within the virtual environment, replace /path/to/myenv with the actual path to your virtual environment.

sudo /path/to/myenv/bin/python script.py

• If you want Python as root or with sudo without creating a virtual environment this approach may have some drawbacks, such as potential conflicts between system-level packages and those installed via pip. Install the required packages using pip with the --user flag.
• By installing packages with the --user flag, you can ensure that they are accessible both when running Python as a regular user and when running it with root or sudo privileges, but is is recommended to use virtual env, but still inspected first.

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