Hi,
Barry Scott wrote:
> On 6 Jul 2021, at 18:35, Todd Zullinger <tmz(a)pobox.com>
wrote:
> Doing so can still interact badly with the system python
> modules.
Do you have an example of this? I'm sure it is possible,
but I've not seen this personally.
Not specific (as I don't use pip). But if you install a
new/different version of some module via pip and use it in
your code, it then works for you and breaks when you run the
code as another user. Things like that were what I intended
by "interact badly."
Depending on your use, that's a feature and not a bug. It's
fine if you know about the potential pitfall. I figure the
folks who know those well will know when they can ignore the
general advice to isolate their use of pip from the packaged
bits.
And, of course, the folks on the Fedora Python team (and
others) have been working to improve the way in which pip
and system modules interact, so some of these potential
pitfalls are less than they used to be (or will be so,
eventually).
The only case I know of where a venv is a must is when you
want to use conflicting sets of pip installed packages for
different apps.
If the set of packages do not conflict I have never seen
pip install -user fail. I'd love to know of a case that
does fail and investigate it.
Indeed, I didn't intend to suggest it would fail. It just
doesn't always lead to a great experience for users who
aren't aware of the ways things might interact between
modules in ~/.local and site-packages.
Hopefully that helps clarify what I meant a bit better.
Thanks,
--
Todd