Installing Python3 modules on Macs in 2024
When trying to install python modules on a new Mac, I kept getting thwarted by this error:
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 non-brew-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.
If you wish to install a non-brew 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.
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.
It seems like installing modules into a virtual environment is the way to go, which is what I had been doing for individual applications, but I wanted to be able to run this script from Alred workflows.
Create a virtualenv in a central place that is easy to access
python3 -m venv ~/.virtualenvs/python3
source ~/.virtualenvs/python3/bin/activate
pip install xyz
Use this virtualenv whenever I run the script
By specifying the python executable inside the virtualenv we created, we can be sure that it can access the modules we installed there.
~/.virtualenvs/python3/bin/python /path/to/my/script.py "{query}"
python
mac
virtualenv
installation