pip ImportError: cannot import name 'main' after update

[Mamol27]

Maintainer note: Anyone that still gets this issue please see #5599.

---

Environment

• pip version: ???
• Python version: 3.5.2
• OS: Linux sas-linuxmint 4.4.0-92-generic uninstall refuses to uninstall things from user homedirs #115-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 10 09:04:33 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

sas@sas-linuxmint /usr/bin $ pip3 install --user --upgrade pip
Collecting pip
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/0f/74/ecd13431bcc456ed390b44c8a6e917c1820365cbebcb6a8974d1cd045ab4/pip-10.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Installing collected packages: pip
Successfully installed pip-8.1.1
You are using pip version 8.1.1, however version 10.0.1 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.
ImportError: cannot import name 'main'
sas@sas-linuxmint /usr/bin $ pip3 install --upgrade pip
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/pip3", line 9, in <module>
    from pip import main
ImportError: cannot import name 'main'

[rcor]

Same issue

[akkshita]

same issue

[pradyunsg]

This is the same as #5221.

[sydanny]

@pradyunsg Why are you marking this a duplicate of a closed issue? It's clearly not closed if it's still an issue...

[benoit-pierre]

@sydanny: #5221 (comment)

[pfmoore]

In this case, the particular issue seems to be:

1. pip3 install --user --upgrade pip installs pip 10 in the user site, but doesn't uninstall the system site copy of pip.
2. User runs the system wrapper from /usr/bin/pip3 which is from the OS-supplied pip 8. This wrapper expects to see pip 8, but it doesn't because user site takes priority over system site.

The solution is to use the pip wrapper installed when you installed pip 10 in --user. That will mean changing your PATH to put that first, or using an explicit path when you invoke pip.

Technically the issue here is slightly different from #5221, as in that issue users were overwriting the system pip. But the root cause is the same - using an older pip wrapper (supplied by the OS) against a newer version of pip. That's not a supported scenario, and you can't encounter it with correct use of pip. So there's no pip issue, hence we close the issues when they arise. We're directing users at #5221 because that's where the bulk of the advice on how to tidy up your system after an incorrect upgrade is located.

[prayagupa]

#5221 (comment) is what worked for me

[thangduong]

thang@cq-gpu:/mnt/tmp/tqdscripts/azure/nvtf$ pip3 install --user --upgrade pip
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/pip3", line 9, in
from pip import main
ImportError: cannot import name 'main'

This does nothing for me. Still same problem.

[pradyunsg]

Please take a look at #5599 and issues linked there.

[gwuah]

hash -d pip
worked for me