Can't install with miniconda

[mivade]

On OS X at least, I get the following error when trying to install via pip:

Collecting scikit-build
  Using cached scikit_build-0.4.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Collecting setuptools==28.3.0 (from scikit-build)
  Using cached setuptools-28.3.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Requirement already satisfied: wheel==0.29.0 in /Users/depalati/miniconda3/envs/skb/lib/python3.5/site-packages (from scikit-build)
Installing collected packages: setuptools, scikit-build
  Found existing installation: setuptools 27.2.0
Cannot remove entries from nonexistent file /Users/depalati/miniconda3/envs/skb/lib/python3.5/site-packages/easy-install.pth

I get similar errors when trying to install in the root conda environment.

Is there a need for a hard requirement on setuptools 28.3.0?

[jcfr]

Hi @mivade

Thanks for your report.

The error message reported is a know issue with conda, using the option --ignore-installed to pip is a possible workaround. See cdeepakroy/slicer_cli_web_plugin@f1fb9b3 for more details.

That said, setuptools==28.3.0 is not a hard requirement, it is the version we test against. Would it help to change this with setuptools>=28.3.0 or a older version known to work ?

[mivade]

Using --ignore-installed does indeed work.

I get setting a version of setuptools used in testing, but given that setuptools is rather stable (as far as I know) and the wide variety of Python installations in the wild, I would think setting the required version to be a bit older would be more sensible, especially given that --ignore-installed could in principle be rather destructive.

Closing since the workaround is enough for now.

[jcfr]

setuptools is rather stable ... setting the required version to be a bit older would be more sensible,

Would 28.0.0 be a good trade-0ff ?

[mivade]

Considering the target audience is likely using anaconda/miniconda, I would think the most sensible thing is to use the version used there as the minimum version. A quick check indicates that setuptools is at version 28.8 there, so I think requiring >=28.0.0 should work.