How can I install packages using pip according to the requirements.txt file from a local directory?

Question

Here is the problem:

I have a requirements.txt file that looks like:

BeautifulSoup==3.2.0
Django==1.3
Fabric==1.2.0
Jinja2==2.5.5
PyYAML==3.09
Pygments==1.4
SQLAlchemy==0.7.1
South==0.7.3
amqplib==0.6.1
anyjson==0.3
...

I have a local archive directory containing all the packages + others.

I have created a new virtualenv with

bin/virtualenv testing

Upon activating it, I tried to install the packages according to requirements.txt from the local archive directory.

source bin/activate
pip install -r /path/to/requirements.txt -f file:///path/to/archive/

I got some output that seems to indicate that the installation is fine:

Downloading/unpacking Fabric==1.2.0 (from -r ../testing/requirements.txt (line 3))
  Running setup.py egg_info for package Fabric
    warning: no previously-included files matching '*' found under directory 'docs/_build'
    warning: no files found matching 'fabfile.py'
Downloading/unpacking South==0.7.3 (from -r ../testing/requirements.txt (line 8))
  Running setup.py egg_info for package South
....

But a later check revealed that none of the packages are installed properly. I cannot import the packages, and none are found in the site-packages directory of my virtualenv. So what went wrong?

Janettajanette

Have you tried using --no-index so it does not even look at PyPI? – Bubbly

You've snipped the error message. It's generally near the bottom. – Kiehl

You could use the file paths instead of the package names, it means you'll have to change the requirements.txt file, but keep the pip install command the same. – Untried

surprised nobody else linked but pip.pypa.io/en/stable/user_guide/#requirements-files – Ayr

I had to do this https://mcmap.net/q/25074/-upgrade-python-packages-from-requirements-txt-using-pip-command – Prothorax

I'm wondering... did your local archive contain the exact same versions of the packages that were specified in requirements.txt? – Pierrepierrepont

Answer 1

This works for me:

$ pip install -r requirements.txt --no-index --find-links file:///tmp/packages

--no-index - Ignore package index (only look at --find-links URLs instead).

-f, --find-links <URL> - If <URL> is a URL or a path to an HTML file, then parse for links to archives. If <URL> is a local path or a file:// URL that's a directory, then look for archives in the directory listing.

Monmouth

Information on --no-index from command pip help install --no-index Ignore package index (only looking at --find-links URLs instead). Information on --find-links from command pip help install -f, --find-links <url> If a url or path to an html file, then parse for links to archives. If a local path or file:// url that's a directory, then look for archives in the directory listing. – Indole

// , This could be a very elegant solution, especially given the eternal struggle with vendorizing: bitprophet.org/blog/2012/06/07/on-vendorizing – Moshemoshell

One caution with this is you may pip install <some_module> without using requirements.txt but that will not update requirements.txt. An alternative might be updating a docker such that it lists all the pip install commands that are run to install dependencies. – Encourage

i tried this python -m pip install -r requirements.txt when inside the activated venv enviroment. things installed smoothly but when i do pip list it does not show that packages, when I am in the active venv or even after deactivate venv. also not able to use that packages. dont know what's wrong here – Breannabreanne

Are you sure python refers to the activated environment's python executable ($ which python)? – Monmouth

Just a heads up: This will work as long as there's not git+ssh requirement in the requirements.txt. For the git+ssh pip will still try to fetch the package – Armourer

same problem with git+https://... is there any workaround for that? – Strife

Answer 2

This works for everyone:

pip install -r /path/to/requirements.txt

Explanation:

-r, --requirement < filename >

Install from the given requirements file. This option can be used multiple times.

Nairobi

I realize this answer doesn't address the original question, but it answers the question I had when I found this on Google... – Angelia

for those who like to know what they type, the -r in the command just means "install from a requirements file", and is a shortcut for --requirement – Leash

When I want to upgrade a package (e.g. Django), I change the version in my requirements.txt file and then run pip install -r /path/to/requirements.txt. This detects the change, upgrades the package, and leaves everything else alone. – Combination

pip freeze > requirements.txt – Moise

while this usually works, a couple subtleties makes it fail. If any install failed for the packages in requirements.txt, none of them will be installed. If a required module imports a dependency during its installation (instead of just listing it as a requirement), it will fail even if the dependency precedes it in the list of dependencies, causing all modules to fail. It is probably a bug to import a dependent module during installation, but it is also possibly unexpected that the dependencies listed in requirements.txt aren't installed sequentially, but all at once. – Risser

In an app that has a Django backend and Angular frontend, should the requirements.txt file be in the root directory (and run there with py -m pip install -r requirements.txt) or should it be in the backend folder where files such as manage.py are located? – Mcelroy

@ReemAl-Assaf it doesn't matter that much. Some people prefer to keep a package.json and requirements.txt in the top level directories for the entire project, or in the sub directories where language specific things take over. It's your choice at this point. – Nairobi

Does anyone know the behavior of this command when the requirements.txt file is empty? Would it throw an error or just simply not do anything. I am unable to verify from my system. – Babar

Answer 3

For virtualenv to install all files in the requirements.txt file.

1. cd to the directory where requirements.txt is located
2. activate your virtualenv
3. run: pip install -r requirements.txt in your shell

Kora

"pyenv virtualenv pip install requirements.txt not working" for the sake of Google... – Friedcake

pip3 install -r requirements.txt worked for me in venv – Lully

pip3 install -r requirements.txt – Meyer

How do you do "activate your virtualenv"? – Entasis

Answer 4

I had a similar problem. I tried this:

    pip install -U -r requirements.txt

(-U = update if it had already installed)

But the problem continued. I realized that some of generic libraries for development were missed.

    sudo apt-get install libtiff5-dev libjpeg8-dev zlib1g-dev liblcms2-dev libwebp-dev tcl8.6-dev tk8.6-dev python-tk

I don't know if this would help you.

Ange

Answer 5

Use:

pip install -r requirements.txt

For further details, please check the help option:

pip install --help

We can find the option '-r' -

-r, --requirement Install from the given requirements file. This option can be used multiple times.

Further information on some commonly used pip install options (this is the help option on the pip install command):

Also the above is the complete set of options. Please use pip install --help for the complete list of options.

Sprain

Answer 6

Short answer

pip install -r /path/to/requirements.txt

or in another form:

python -m pip install -r /path/to/requirements.txt

Explanation

Here, -r is short form of --requirement and it asks the pip to install from the given requirements file.

pip will start installation only after checking the availability of all listed items in the requirements file and it won't start installation even if one requirement is unavailable.

One workaround to install the available packages is installing listed packages one by one. Use the following command for that. A red color warning will be shown to notify you about the unavailable packages.

cat requirements.txt | xargs -n 1 pip install

To ignore comments (lines starting with a #) and blank lines, use:

cat requirements.txt | cut -f1 -d"#" | sed '/^\s*$/d' | xargs -n 1 pip install

Longerich

Answer 7

First of all, create a virtual environment.

In Python 3.6

virtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python3.6 <path/to/new/virtualenv/>

In Python 2.7

virtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python2.7 <path/to/new/virtualenv/>

Then activate the environment and install all the packages available in the requirement.txt file.

source <path/to/new/virtualenv>/bin/activate
pip install -r <path/to/requirement.txt>

Hemeralopia

Thanks. For windows user, to activate environment use this command : <path-to-virtualenv>/Scripts/activate.bat. To deactivate environment, use this : <path-to-virtualenv>/Scripts/deactivate.bat. – Osset

Answer 8

Try this:

python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Willodeanwilloughby

An explanation would be in order. – Malayopolynesian

Answer 9

Often, you will want a fast install from local archives, without probing PyPI.

First, download the archives that fulfill your requirements:

$ pip install --download <DIR> -r requirements.txt

Then, install using –find-links and –no-index:

$ pip install --no-index --find-links=[file://]<DIR> -r requirements.txt

Gan

no such option: --download – Gahan

In newer versions of pip pip install --download has to be pip download. – Prosaism

Answer 10

I work with a lot of systems that have been mucked by developers "following directions they found on the Internet". It is extremely common that your pip and your python are not looking at the same paths/site-packages. For this reason, when I encounter oddness I start by doing this:

$ python -c 'import sys; print(sys.path)'
['', '/usr/lib/python2.7', '/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-x86_64-linux-gnu',
'/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-old',
'/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload', '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages',
'/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages']

$ pip --version
pip 9.0.1 from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (python 2.7)

That is a happy system.

Below is an unhappy system. (Or at least it's a blissfully ignorant system that causes others to be unhappy.)

$ pip --version
pip 9.0.1 from /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (python 3.6)

$ python -c 'import sys; print(sys.path)'
['', '/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.13/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python27.zip',
'/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.13/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7',
'/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.13/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/plat-darwin',
'/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.13/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/plat-mac',
'/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.13/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/plat-mac/lib-scriptpackages',
'/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.13/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/lib-tk',
'/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.13/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/lib-old',
'/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.13/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload',
'/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages']

$ which pip pip2 pip3
/usr/local/bin/pip
/usr/local/bin/pip3

It is unhappy because pip is (python3.6 and) using /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages while python is (python2.7 and) using /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages

When I want to make sure I'm installing requirements to the right python, I do this:

$ which -a python python2 python3
/usr/local/bin/python
/usr/bin/python
/usr/local/bin/python2
/usr/local/bin/python3

$ /usr/bin/python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

You've heard, "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it." The DevOps version of that is, "If you didn't break it and you can work around it, don't try to fix it."

Selectivity

Answer 11

Installing requirements.txt file inside virtual env with Python 3:

I had the same issue. I was trying to install the requirements.txt file inside a virtual environment. I found the solution.

Initially, I created my virtualenv in this way:

virtualenv -p python3 myenv

Activate the environment using:

source myenv/bin/activate

Now I installed the requirements.txt file using:

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Installation was successful and I was able to import the modules.

Luciusluck

I faced this issue while installing the requirements file inside a virtual environment. I have now modified my response to address the issue – Luciusluck

Using Anaconda Python 3.6 on Windows, I had to do virtualenv -p python myenv, myenv\Scripts\activate.bat, pip install -r requirements.txt – Foraminifer

Actually, on the contrary, this seems like the only answer that does answer the part of the question about installing locally defined deps in requirements.txt to a virtualenv. Unless I am missing something? Anyway, thanks! – Dietetic

Answer 12

On windows Using this

pip install -r /path/to/requirements.txt 

On linux pc we have python2 and also python3 so most time pip is regarded as

Python2

pip install -r /path/to/requirements.txt 

Python 3

pip3 install -r /path/to/requirements.txt

Quesada

Answer 13

• Create virtual environment python3 -m venv virtual-env (For windows use python instead of python3)
• Activate your virtual environment source virtual-env/bin/activate
• Now install requirements pip install -r requirements.txt

Luigiluigino

Answer 14

pip install --user -r requirements.txt 

OR

pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt 

Penetrating

is it possible to specify --user inside requirements.txt file? – Roxannaroxanne

An explanation would be in order. – Malayopolynesian

Answer 15

Use pip3 install -r requirements.txt But make sure the requirements.txt file has been pulled from origin and not added to .gitignore

Understandable

Answer 16

In Windows, this can lead to less format-related path issues, if you have

c:\folder\subfolder\requirements.txt

cd c:\folder\subfolder 
pip install -r requirements.txt

Maisiemaison

Answer 17

I have solved with running the below command:

py -m pip install ./requirements.txt

the above command will install all dependencies and libraries for the Django project.

Done