pipx
pipx
is a tool to enable installation of end-user applications written
in Python.
The main difference from pip
is that any application installed with pip
is only executable from an environment that pip
installs it into, while
pipx
makes the tool executable from any environment.
This means that pipx
can install Python command line tools (such as Copier)
so that they can be used from any virtual environment.
Additionally, pipx
installs these tools and their dependencies into
isolated locations.
Doing so avoids dependency version conflicts and makes uninstalling packages
easy and safe.
How we use it
We use pipx
to install Copier (the technology that powers our template) as
a command line tool, so that we can call copier
from any virtual environment.
Beyond that, we don’t use pipx
for anything else in the template.
In the Getting Started section, we assume the use
of pipx
.
But you can use conda
or pip
if you’d rather have copier
installed
in a specific environment.
We have not yet documented the differences to the getting started workflow that
this would require.
How to install pipx
There are a few different ways to install pipx
depending on your operating
system.
Using conda
to install pipx
is probably easiest.
However, if you don’t have conda
already, take a look at the
pipx documentation to find the
installation process that is most straightforward for you system.
An example installation of pipx
might look like this.
>> conda install -c conda-forge pipx
>> pipx ensurepath
Important
Don’t forget to run pipx ensurepath
to finalize the installation.