Fix Python – ImportError: cannot import name main when running pip –version command in windows7 32 bit

Question 1

I’ve installed the latest python (2.7.9) bundled with pip and setuptools for windows 32-bit. I’ve tried reinstalling pip but the problem persists.

Here’s the error after running pip --version in Administrator cmd:

Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "D:\Python\lib\runpy.py", line 162, in _run_module_as_main
  "__main__", fname, loader, pkg_name)
 File "D:\Python\lib\runpy.py", line 72, in _run_code 
  exec code in run_globals
 File "D:\Python\Scripts\pip.exe\__main__.py", line 5, in <module>
ImportError: cannot import name main

Question 2

Even though the original question seems to be from 2015, this ‘bug’ seems to affect users installing pip-10.0.0 as well.

The workaround is not to modify pip, however to change the way pip is called. Instead of calling /usr/bin/pip call pip via Python itself. For example, instead of the below:

pip install <package>

If from Python version 2 (or default Python binary is called python) do :

python -m pip install <package>

or if from Python version 3:

python3 -m pip install <package>

Question

Answer