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Pedro Gordo
Asked: 2019-04-08 07:43:21 +0800 CST

How to uninstall Python from pip

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My default Python installation is from pip which is at 2.7.10. apt-get has already Python 2.7.13 installed. I don't want to keep both installations because it's confusing, and I would prefer to keep the apt-get one because I'm more familiar with it. Can pip use the Python installation from apt-get?
Trying to uninstall pip Python, I get:

pedro@gordo-002528460857:~$ pip uninstall python
Cannot uninstall 'Python'. It is a distutils installed project and thus we cannot accurately determine which files belong to it which would lead to only a partial uninstall.

What's the best way to work this out?
If you have any better advice, I'm happy to take it because I don't work regularly with Python, so I don't know the best practices here.

EDIT:
This is how I see that the 2.7.10 is from pip and not from apt-get: enter image description here

EDIT 2*:
More info from the .bashrc:

export PATH="~/.pyenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init -)"
eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"

And also:

pedro@gordo-002528460857:~$ which pip
/home/pedro/.pyenv/shims/pip
package-management python apt pip

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The installation info you get from pip show python is actually a python virtualenv created by you or someone else into the path ~/.pyenv/bin:$PATH and was added to bashrc so that it gets loaded by default at login. So the solution is to delete those lines from .bashrc and re-login, then you'll only see and be able to use the system python version. If you want to use that virtualenv then run the command source ~/.pyenv/bin/activate and then to exit: deactivate

    At the moment that virtualenv was created, the system python version was 2.7.10, hence the version shown by pip. Later the system python was upgraded thats why you see a latest version with apt-get now. Upgrading the system python doesn't affect virtualenv, you need to rebuild it if required. There is a good discussion on this topic here

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