How to install pip for Python 2

Question

I run

python --version

and get

Python 2.7.3

I run

pip --version

and get

pip 1.5 from /usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/pip-1.5-py3.2.egg (python 3.2)

I installed pip using apt-get. How to I get the Python 2 version of pip?

I've reinstalled python and python-pip several times with apt-get. I'm also curious why these would install different Python versions.

Amenity

This question is similar or duplicate for this when you try to install using apt-get – Deprivation

Answer 1

To install pip for Python2 on Ubuntu, this worked for me

sudo apt update
curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/pip/2.7/get-pip.py --output get-pip.py
sudo python2 get-pip.py

It's based on DareDevil7's answer but notice the url is different.

Karleenkarlen

you don't need to sudo; installing in user-space is fine – Mistrial

This works even though pip officially dropped support for Python2. – Delladelle

Amazing that people are still installing Python2 in 2024... – Karleenkarlen

Answer 2

If there are both python2.7 and python3 in you ubuntu system,run this

sudo apt install python-pip

There will be pip for python3 ,pip2 for python2

Colorimeter

Unable to locate package python-pip – Shaveling

This answer is incorrect now that python2.7 is out of support. – Longford

Not found check your command again. – Carolyn

This works beautifully for ubuntu:trusty, whereas python2 get-pip.py doesn't work (results in "ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement pip<21.0 (from versions: none)" ) – Adenosine

Answer 3

run this

python2.7 -m ensurepip --upgrade

Rumpus

Very useful. Needed pip to install virtualenv for supporting legacy code on AWS Linux. Also appreciated (a) no need for internet access (b) support of --user option to keep things isolated. docs.python.org/2.7/library/ensurepip.html#module-ensurepip – Christabelle

Thank you. I think this is the only way to install pip2 using the python2.7 package from the distribution repository on modern Fedora Linux. – Rickard

Answer 4

I would suggest that you use pyenv to manage multiple versions of Python, because it can often get problematic. Right now the solution to the problem would depend on the configuration you have for pip and python in your bash.

One thing you can do is download the easy_install script, and use python 3 to run it and install pip for python 3 alone.

Hawkeyed

Answer 5

If you really want to install pip globally for your system use the get-pip.py script with the wanted python binary http://www.pip-installer.org/en/latest/installing.html#install-or-upgrade-pip

python2.7 get-pip.py

But you should consider using virtualenv / buildout to get an isolated environment

Crystalloid

File "/tmp/tmpNoRNRb/pip.zip/pip/_internal/cli/main.py", line 60 sys.stderr.write(f"ERROR: {exc}") SyntaxError: invalid syntax – Canoewood

That syntax (f"ERROR: {exc}") is only in Python 3 – Postnatal

So that version of get-pip.py is for Python 3 and this answer is wrong, see Edward Gaere's answer – Postnatal

Answer 6

Download the tar.gz of pip from https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pip#downloads.

Unzip or Untar, Then from its untar directory install for any specific version of python using

python2.7 setup.py install

or

python3.3 setup.py install

Deprivation

Answer 7

Run the following Commands:

sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt update
curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py --output get-pip.py
sudo python get-pip.py

Plonk

Use bootstrap.pypa.io/pip/2.7/get-pip.py instead – All

Answer 8

Its a not a good idea to install pip for python2 system wide. I guess, you need to run a project with python2. The best solution is vritualenv. I am making an assumption that in your installation which python2 returns /usr/bin/python2.7 and virtualenv --version returns virtualenv 20.15.1 from home/user/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv/__init__.pyc

   1  virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python2.7 YOURPROJECT
   2. source YOURPROJECT/bin/activate

The last command will now activate the virtual environment and in this environment, your python is python2.7 and pip is installed for python2.7 as well. You can deactivate your virtual environment using deactivate.

Burkes