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.