Cooperative package management for Python
Cooperative package management for Python
Posted Sep 1, 2021 9:40 UTC (Wed) by MrWim (subscriber, #47432)In reply to: Cooperative package management for Python by stefanor
Parent article: Cooperative package management for Python
> ensurepip never really made sense in a typical package-managed Linux distro. Distros have package-managers that are responsible for installing things. They don't tend to get on well with other tools messing in the same trees of the filesystem.
I think this is exactly why it makes sense to include venv wherever you include pip. venv is the mechanism that people use to avoid messing with the same trees of the filesystem. By not including it you have a pip that can mess with the distro provided packages, but you don't have the capability to sandbox off these changes.
Note: you don't need to be a Python developer to want pip. You'll need it whenever you want to run any non-distro-provided Python software - not only when developing it. It's exactly these users who are not familiar with the Python packaging tools that are at most risk from breaking their systems in a way that they don't know how to diagnose or fix.