[SOLVED] -current pip and pip3 what's a difference?

igadoter · 02-01-2021, 04:39 PM

I was sure pip command refers to Python 2.7 version while pip3 to Python 3.x, but it appeared I was wrong

Code:

bash-5.1$ pip --version
pip 20.3.3 from /usr/lib64/python3.9/site-packages/pip (python 3.9)
bash-5.1$ pip3 --version
pip 20.3.3 from /usr/lib64/python3.9/site-packages/pip (python 3.9)
bash-5.1$ ls -l `which pip`
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 941 Jan 20 23:56 /usr/bin/pip
bash-5.1$ ls -l `which pip3`
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 943 Jan 20 23:56 /usr/bin/pip3

they are both executable, both refer to Python 3.9, but they even different in size.

ctrlaltca · 02-01-2021, 04:46 PM

They are quite the same file, the only difference in size is due to the name of the file itself that is cited inside the script.
You may want to use pip2 for python2.

igadoter · 02-01-2021, 05:18 PM

I don't understand this. I mean people using Python know why it has to be like that. I mean propably better question would be are pip and pip3 are the same programs.

3rensho · 02-02-2021, 03:00 AM

If you compare /usr/bin/pip and /usr/bin/pip3 they are identical except it is called pip in /usr/bin/pip and is called pip3 in /usr/bin/pip3.

brobr · 02-03-2021, 07:53 AM

I guess this change relates to the end-of-line status of python 2; it's no longer seen as the major version on a box. On current, this is python 3 and thus commands as 'pip' will pick up the python 3 version ('pip3'). On many other distributions with python 3 also 'python' refers to python 3 and this also happens in some scripts (calling for python when python3 is intended to be used), that then do not run properly on a pre-current slack-box with python2 as the default python (and normally called by 'python').

Yes it is confusing, join the club..

Pithium · 02-03-2021, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by igadoter

I don't understand this. I mean people using Python know why it has to be like that. I mean propably better question would be are pip and pip3 are the same programs.

Because there is only pip. The python developers made major changes in Python3 that required syntax changes to be made. You have to remember that Python is a language and so releasing the new version does not immediately obsolete the old version.

The reason pip3 became necessary is because it was necessary for distribution package maintainers to provide both python2 and python3 alongside each other. pip itself is a python program so it needs to be provided in both versions of the language. Now that python2 is officially EOL, pip is a symlink to the supported version by default.