[SOLVED] Pip six.add_metaclass error

Pip six.add_metaclass error

A few days ago I started getting the following error when using pip (1,2 or 3) to install.

Traceback (most recent call last):   File "/home/c4pta1n/.local/bin/pip", line 7, in <module>
    from pip._internal import main   File "/home/c4pta1n/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip/_internal/__init__.py", line 42, in <module>
    from pip._internal import cmdoptions   File "/home/c4pta1n/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip/_internal/cmdoptions.py", line 16, in <module>
    from pip._internal.index import (   File "/home/c4pta1n/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip/_internal/index.py", line 15, in <module>
    from pip._vendor import html5lib, requests, six   File "/home/c4pta1n/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip/_vendor/requests/__init__.py", line 86, in <module>
    from pip._vendor.urllib3.contrib import pyopenssl   File "/home/c4pta1n/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip/_vendor/urllib3/contrib/pyopenssl.py", line 46, in <module>
    import OpenSSL.SSL   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/OpenSSL/__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    from OpenSSL import rand, crypto, SSL   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/OpenSSL/crypto.py", line 13, in <module>
    from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import dsa, rsa   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cryptography/hazmat/primitives/asymmetric/__init__.py", line 12, in <module>
    @six.add_metaclass(abc.ABCMeta) AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'add_metaclass'

pip3 install pip --ignore-installed six
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/pip3", line 11, in <module>
    load_entry_point('pip==10.0.1', 'console_scripts', 'pip3')()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 476, in load_entry_point
    return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2700, in load_entry_point
    return ep.load()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2318, in load
    return self.resolve()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2324, in resolve
    module = __import__(self.module_name, fromlist=['__name__'], level=0)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/_internal/__init__.py", line 42, in <module>
    from pip._internal import cmdoptions
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/_internal/cmdoptions.py", line 16, in <module>
    from pip._internal.index import (
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/_internal/index.py", line 15, in <module>
    from pip._vendor import html5lib, requests, six
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/_vendor/requests/__init__.py", line 86, in <module>
    from pip._vendor.urllib3.contrib import pyopenssl
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/_vendor/urllib3/contrib/pyopenssl.py", line 46, in <module>
    import OpenSSL.SSL
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/OpenSSL/__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    from OpenSSL import rand, crypto, SSL
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/OpenSSL/crypto.py", line 13, in <module>
    from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import dsa, rsa
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cryptography/hazmat/primitives/asymmetric/__init__.py", line 12, in <module>
    @six.add_metaclass(abc.ABCMeta)
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'add_metaclass'

I have been researching and trying to troubleshoot this issue and I have not been able to narrow down the issue. Just prior to noticing this issue I had updated my debian system using the standard repository and had no issues of note, I had also updated a few pip modules using pip3 install --update, I believe the modules I had updated were scapy and requests I am unable to use pip for any command that I have tried, even "pip list" or any version of pip through 3.6. I have uninstalled and reinstalled pip, virtualenv, and tried to manually remove the six.add_metaclass-1.0* folder from my distutils folder. Nothing I have tried has created any change that I can see and I am not able to narrow down that any issue that I see written about is indeed similar or related to this specific issue. I am hoping to find help to narrow this problem down further, correct it or be pointed in the direction of any information that could help me.

Solution

I found the answer to my issue. Apparently some linux versions have specific versions of pip and six that have to be installed through the distro package manager directly in order to work. There are some nuanced changes in how Debian makes use of pip, especially regarding updates, and they have coded these changes in to their package manager and not to pip. When I recompiled Python I had uninstalled the entire python framework and I went to the source url's to recombine python and to download pip and any other dependencies. I figured since I was installing directly from the source that it would be fine... If you are using CentOS, Debian,Redhat and maybe others, then you must install pip from the package manager that is managed by your distro in order to avoid running into this error somewhere down the line.