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There's something wrong with my OSX system and python that no amount of googling has fixed. I've uninstalled all traces of python except the system python package with OSX that I'm not supposed to uninstall, and then started afresh with a new python from python.org, and installed pip.

Now...not sure if this particular behavior below is part of the issue, but it seems strange to me:

I ran python twice. Once with sudo and once without. Without sudo, I can't access pip. What's going on?

$ sudo /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python
Python 2.7.9 (v2.7.9:648dcafa7e5f, Dec 10 2014, 10:10:46)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import pip
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named pip

However...

$ /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python
Python 2.7.9 (v2.7.9:648dcafa7e5f, Dec 10 2014, 10:10:46)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import pip
>>>

I've already referred to: sudo python runs old python version

I have nothing in my .bash_profile, or anything in any other profiles.

All I've done is the following:

export PYTHONPATH=/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

ls $PYTHONPATH returns:

_markerlib          pip             pkg_resources.pyc       setuptools-8.0.1.dist-info  virtualenv.pyc
easy_install.py         pip-1.5.6.dist-info     setuptools          virtualenv-1.11.6.dist-info virtualenv_support
easy_install.pyc        pkg_resources.py        setuptools-7.0.dist-info    virtualenv.py

which pip returns: 

/bin/pip
Community
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imagineerThat
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2 Answers2

2

sudo overrides your export. It's the same Python (as you can easily tell from the version information it prints) but it runs with a different (system default) PYTHONPATH.

This is one of the jobs of sudo; it sanitizes the environment to safe defaults. You may be able to tweak this, but the real question is, what are you trying to accomplish? If you need to run as root with a particular environment, set up a virtualenv and/or write a wrapper script which sets things up before dispatching Python.

tripleee
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  • The following fails to print out the PYTHONPATH as a part of my sys.path: sudo -E bash -c 'python -c "import sys; print sys.path"' – imagineerThat Dec 14 '14 at 07:22
  • However, I can see that sudo -E picks up PYTHONPATH as follows: sudo -E bash -c "echo $PYTHONPATH" /lib/python2.7/site-packages/ – imagineerThat Dec 14 '14 at 07:23
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    Sorry for making 3 comments, but I thought it would be cleanest this way. Basically, I fail to understand why if PYTHONPATH is picked up by sudo -E, why does python not automatically include PYTHONPATH within the sys.path list? – imagineerThat Dec 14 '14 at 07:24
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    Your use of double quotes exposes the current shell's value, not that of the `sudo` shell. Your current shell will interpolate any variables in double quotes before `sudo` runs. Use single quotes to see the actual value of the variable within the root shell instance. – tripleee Apr 04 '17 at 18:58
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What do you get when you compare the output of which pip and sudo which pip? On my system I get different outputs. If you do, I'm not sure how to fix that, but you could try to force the sudo'd python to look in the correct directory:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '/lib/python2.7/site-packages/')

import pip
BingsF
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  • They both point to /bin/pip. Your solution works. Thanks! However, I'm still not sure whether the behavior I described is faulty. – imagineerThat Dec 14 '14 at 07:07