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Homebrew installations of python throw an error on building #46
Description
When building with a homebrew installation of python an error is raised. We can avoid this by installing in a virtual environment as suggested by the error message. For example
>> which python3
>> /opt/homebrew/bin/python3
>> python3 -m pip install .
>> error: externally-managed-environment
× This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try brew install
xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
install.
If you wish to install a non-brew-packaged Python package,
create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip.
If you wish to install a non-brew packaged Python application,
it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a
virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.
note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python installation or OS distribution provider. You can override this, at the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing --break-system-packages.
hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed specification.
It is easy to resolve this by doing (in an appropriate directory, eg. assume the following is in project root).
I propose to add the following notes to the build and installation part of the readme.
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
python3 -m pip install .
python3 -m pip install tox
tox
Activity
jmalkin commentedon Apr 6, 2024
I don't think creating a virtual environment constitutes general-purpose usage instructions? Anyone trying to use the library in Docker, even if compiling locally (as opposed to pulling from pypi) would not create a venv.
c-dickens commentedon Sep 20, 2024
Do we have progress on this @jmalkin ? My understanding was the virtual envs were considered good practice for python, although I understand the point you make about Docker. From memory, @leerho also ran into this issue in the previous release so I also appreciate the perspective of a newcomer to python being put off by the above problem. Perhaps we could just add a small note along the lines of "if pulling from pypi then you may want to consider a virtual environment" ?