Search for pip distribution does not work as documented

[andreiko]

Documentation on "--never-download" says:

If this option is provided, virtualenv will never try to download setuptools/distribute or pip. Instead, it will exit with status code 1 if it fails to find local distributions for any of these required packages. The local distribution lookup is done in this order and the following locations:

1. The current directory.
2. The directory where virtualenv.py is located.
3. A virtualenv_support directory relative to the directory where virtualenv.py is located.
4. If the file being executed is not named virtualenv.py (i.e. is a boot script), a virtualenv_support directory relative to wherever virtualenv.py is actually installed.

I understand this as "the first match is used for installation".

In the beginning install_pip function filenames list is generated with respect to that order, but then in gets sorted by basename and the last filename from that list is used no matter from what location it came from.

Why do we need that sort at all?

[carljm]

The purpose of the sort is to install the most recent version of pip found in any of the checked locations. It could be debated whether this is the best policy, but changing it would be a backwards-compatibility problem, so a very strong case would need to be made that it is worth changing.

I agree that the docs could use clarification on that point.

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