What does `pipenv install -e .` do and how to use it?

Question

pipenv help documentation writes:

Install a local setup.py into your virtual environment/Pipfile:

$ pipenv install -e .

Can someone further elaborate when and how to use the command pipenv install -e . in relation to setup.py?

According to pipenv, -e . refers to editable dependencies. However, I am unable to understand the given explanation. Can someone explain this?

Edit: For example, after I had created a simple distro package call mypkg in my --user directory in pip, i.e.~/mypkg, using commands:

$ pipenv shell
(mypkg-x985xH5M) $ python3 setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
(mypkg-x985xH5M) $ twine upload --repository-url https://test.pypi.org/legacy/ dist/*

and /mypkg and has the following file structure:

/mypkg
  |_ LICENSE
  |_ README.md
  |_ setup.py
  |_ /mypkg
  |    |_ __init__.py
  |    |_ mypkg.py
  |_ /dist
  |    |_ mypkg-0.0.1rc1.tar.gz
  |    |_ mypkg-0.0.1rc1-py3-none-any.whl
  |_ /build
  |    |_ /bdist.linux-x86_64
  |    |_ /lib
  |         |_ /mypkg
  |              |_ __init__.py
  |              |_ mypkg.py
  |_ /mypkg.egg-info
       |_ dependency_links.txt
       |_ entry_points.txt
       |_ PKG-INFO
       |_ SOURCES.txt
       |_ top_level.txt

what does the command $ pipenv install -e . do?

Haven't used pipenv specifically, but I'd imagine it's identical to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35064426/when-would-be-e-editable-option-useful-with-pip-install — user3483203, Nov 19 '18 at 16:01
@user3483203 Thanks for the link. In addition I found documentation on [pip install](https://pip-python3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reference/pip_install.html#git) helpful, especially on VCS. — Sun Bear, Nov 21 '18 at 17:37

Martijn Pieters · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-11T12:42:50.957

Normally, pip (driving setup.py or another PEP 518 compliant build tool) will build and install a Python project, into the Python site-packages location. .py and .pyc files are copied over in this process.

This means that if you have a local copy of the project on disk, you can't just edit the .py source files and see the changes reflected in projects that load those same files from site-packages.

The -e switch builds, then installs a pointer file in site-packages that automatically adds the location of the project to Python's module search path. Now loading the modules will load them from the on-disk location, not from site-packages, and changes to the files will show up every time you run a Python project that uses it. See Python setup.py develop vs install and Difference between setup.py install and setup.py develop

. just tells pip / pipenv to take the current working directory as the location of the project to build (setup.py or pyproject.toml file with [build-system] section should exist in that directory).

For your example, running pip install -e . in ~/mypkg, it means python3 setup.py develop will be run, adding a .egg-link file in the site-packages directory of the Python 3 virtualenv that Pipenv is maintaining. In the same site-packages directory is a easy-install.pth file that is updated to add the full path of the ~/mypkg directory. All this means that import mypkg in Python will import the code directly from the ~/mypkg/mypkg package, and any changes you make to the .py files there are going to be directly available.

I have elaborated on my question (see Edit). Can you simplify your explanation to help me understand what is going on during `pipenv install -e .`? Pardon my inability to connect your explanation to my question. Thank u. — Sun Bear, Nov 19 '18 at 17:52
`pipenv install -e .` will add dependencies from setup.py (`install_requires`) to `Pipfile.lock` and install these dependencies into the current virtual environment. The `-e` flag will install the project in editable mode (it will not copy project files to site-packages) — Rubén Salas, Jul 10 '20 at 16:33
Yes, pipenv is just a wrapper around pip in this case, one that records direct and indirect dependencies as a hierarchy and helps recreate the same environment elsewhere given the same lock file. — Martijn Pieters, Jul 11 '20 at 12:44

What does `pipenv install -e .` do and how to use it?

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