Please add an option to install latest setuptools/pip instead of embedded ones

[glenfant]

The equivalent shell script I use is following:

#!/bin/bash
# Updates setuptools and pip n a virtualenv
DOWNLOAD="curl -O"
#DOWNLOAD=wget
$DOWNLOAD https://bitbucket.org/pypa/setuptools/raw/bootstrap/ez_setup.py
python ez_setup.py
$DOWNLOAD https://raw.github.com/pypa/pip/master/contrib/get-pip.py
python get-pip.py
rm ez_setup.py get-pip.py setuptools-*.tar.gz

[pfmoore]

Why can you not just do:

virtualenv foo
foo/bin/pip install -U setuptools
# or if you want the latest versions of both
# foo/bin/python -m pip install -U setuptools pip 

Having said this, an option to install the latest versions isn't out of the question.

[piotr-dobrogost]

@pfmoore
Why different syntax when upgrading both – -m pip instead of pip?

[pfmoore]

Because pip can't replace its own wrapper executable while it's running. That's certainly true on Windows, and may or may not be on Unix.

I use the guaranteed-reliable form python -m pip just to make sure the advice I give doesn't cause problems to anyone who might find this thread in future.

[piotr-dobrogost]

For reference:
Stackoverflow question: Does Python IO allow opened file to be deleted/renamed on Windows?
Python issue 12939: Add new io.FileIO using the native Windows API
UPDATE
Executable wrappers and upgrading pip (Was: Current status of PEP 439 (pip boostrapping))

[pfmoore]

Not relevant, it's the OS that opens the pip.exe file and it doesn't allow removal. This has been discussed extensively on the distutils-sig list. Feel free to look there and if you can provide an implementation strategy (preferably in the form of a patch :-)) that might work, that would be fantastic.

Having said that, this is a bit off topic for this feature request.