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Q&A Why does Pip display "error: externally-managed-environment", and what can I do about it?

My (non-Windows) operating system came with Python, but that Python didn't include Pip. I followed instructions to install Pip for the included Python, using my system's package manager. But now w...

2 answers  ·  posted 10d ago by Karl Knechtel‭  ·  last activity 20h ago by Alexei‭

Question python linux pip
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Karl Knechtel‭ · 2024-06-22T04:15:13Z (10 days ago)
Why does Pip display "error: externally-managed-environment", and what can I do about it?
My (non-Windows) operating system came with Python, but that Python [didn't include Pip](https://software.codidact.com/posts/291787). I followed instructions to install Pip for the included Python, using my system's package manager.

But now when I try to use Pip, I[^1] get errors like:

```none
error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install
    python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
    install.

    If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package,
    create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
    Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make
    sure you have python3-full installed.

    If you wish to install a non-Debian packaged Python application,
    it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a
    virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.

    See /usr/share/doc/python3.11/README.venv for more information.

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.
```
What's going on here? What does it mean by "externally managed", and why should I have to jump through the hoops described?

[^1]: In reality, my system doesn't actually work this way - and I haven't actually installed Pip for my system Python, because I personally recommend against doing so. The error message shown here is copied [from the corresponding Stack Overflow question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75608323) ([alternately](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75602063/)).