callable-pip 2.0.0

Drop-in Replacement for pip.main

This usage is always guaranteed to work on any supported python version with any functioning version of pip.

Instead of pip.main(...), use this method instead:

import callable_pip
callable_pip.main('install', '--upgrade', 'setuptools')

If you are writing a python program, you can just use callable_pip.main() yourself. This is the only guaranteed-safe usage.

Patching pip.main

callable-pip provides a patch which adds pip.main() back to pip, but which is dangerous and known not to work on some versions of pip:

import callable_pip
callable_pip.dangerous_patch()
...
import pip
pip.main('--version')  # actually invokes callable_pip.main()

If you have dependencies which use pip.main, you can call callable_pip.dangerous_patch() yourself and it will usually work.

dangerous_patch is so-named because it is not guaranteed to work on all pip versions and it is dangerous. Avoid it when possible.

Patching Without Control of Source

You may be a consumer of packages which use pip.main() in a context where you cannot modify or do not own any of the source. These techniques may help you.

More details on sitecustomize.py and .pth files can be found in the Python documentation: https://docs.python.org/3/library/site.html

Remember to remove these patches if you uninstall callable_pip, or Python will fail to start.

import callable_pip
callable_pip.dangerous_patch()

import callable_pip; callable_pip.dangerous_patch()

2.0.0

Update to pyproject.toml with flit-core for package builds.

Defer import of subprocess until it is needed.

1.0.0

Improved docs, releasing as v1.0 Production after some testing and validation. No code changes from v0.1.0

0.1.0

Initial version