PrintAs already mentioned, pip is a Python package manager. It allows for an easier install, uninstall and update of packages. Pip comes installed with Python, and if you have multiple versions of Python you will have a different version of pip for each. To make sure we are using the version of pip that comes installed with ArcGIS Pro, we will go to the directory where pip is installed. Go to the Windows Start Menu and open the Python Command Prompt as before.
In the command window that now opens, you will again be located in the default Python environment folder of your ArcGIS Pro installation. For newer versions of Pro this will be C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\ESRI\conda\envs\arcgispro-py3-clone\. Pip is installed in the Scripts subfolder of that location, so type in:
cd Scripts
Now you can run a command to check that pip is in the directory – type in:
dir pip.*
The resulting output will show you all occurrences of files that start with pip. in the current folder, in this case, there is only one file found – pip.exe.
Next, let’s run our first pip command, type in:
pip --version
The output shows you the current version of pip. Pip allows you to see what packages have been installed. To look at the list type in:
pip list
The output will show (Figure 31) the list of packages and their respective versions.
To install a package, you run the pip command with the install option and provide the name of the package, for example, try:
pip install numpy
Pip will run for a few seconds and show you a progress bar as it is searching for the numpy package online and installing it. When you run pip install, the packages are loaded from an online repository named PyPI, short for Python Package Index. You can browse available packages at Python's Package Index page. If the installation has been successful you will see a message stating the same, which you can confirm by running pip list again.
In order to find out if any packages are outdated you can run the pip list with the outdated option:
pip list –-outdated
If you find that there are packages you want to update, you run the install with the upgrade option, for example:
pip install numpy –-upgrade
This last command will either install a newer version of numpy or inform you that you already have the latest version installed.
If you wanted to uninstall a package you would run pip with the uninstall option, for example:
pip uninstall numpy
You will be asked to confirm that you want the package uninstalled, and, if you do (better not to do this or you will have to install the package again!), the package will be removed.
The packages installed with pip are placed in the Lib\site-packages folder of the Python environment you are using. You will recall that that was one of the search locations Python uses in order to find the packages you import.