I need to install ipython on mac. My current python version is :
myuser@blr resources % python3 --version
Python 3.12.6
myuser@blr resources % which python3
/opt/homebrew/bin/python3
Similar to this post (ipython installation on mac), I dont have Anacond on mac. Now trying to install ipython using pip3. When I try to install ipython, initially I was getting a error related a private / custom repository hosted on GCP. hence ran below command.
pip3 install --isolated --index-url https://pypi.org/simple ipython
Now getting below error ie "error: externally-managed-environment"
myuser@blr resources % pip3 install --isolated --index-url https://pypi.org/simple ipython
[notice] A new release of pip is available: 24.2 -> 25.0.1
[notice] To update, run: python3.12 -m pip install --upgrade pip
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 Python library that isn't in Homebrew,
use a virtual environment:
python3 -m venv path/to/venv
source path/to/venv/bin/activate
python3 -m pip install xyz
If you wish to install a Python application that isn't in Homebrew,
it may be easiest to use 'pipx install xyz', which will manage a
virtual environment for you. You can install pipx with
brew install pipx
You may restore the old behavior of pip by passing
the '--break-system-packages' flag to pip, or by adding
'break-system-packages = true' to your pip.conf file. The latter
will permanently disable this error.
If you disable this error, we STRONGLY recommend that you additionally
pass the '--user' flag to pip, or set 'user = true' in your pip.conf
file. Failure to do this can result in a broken Homebrew installation.
Read more about this behavior here: <https://peps.python.org/pep-0668/>
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.
I’m not looking to create a virtual environment. I'm trying to understand why this error is occurring and how to fix it.
This bit of text should give you a good hint as to why this error is popping up:
You may restore the old behavior of pip by passing
the '--break-system-packages' flag to pip, or by adding
'break-system-packages = true' to your pip.conf file. The latter
will permanently disable this error.
Installing python packages and raw digging them on your system used to break python based system dependencies quite a lot back in the day. For more details, see Python dependencies: break your system if you want by Jairo Andres.
Just use a venv. See the venv module in the Python docs.