pip vs easy_install¶
easy_install, now deprecated, was released in 2004 as part of Setuptools. It was notable at the time for installing packages from PyPI using requirement specifiers, and automatically installing dependencies.
pip came later in 2008, as an alternative to easy_install, although still largely built on top of Setuptools components. It was notable at the time for not installing packages as Eggs or from Eggs (but rather simply as ‘flat’ packages from sdists), and introducing the idea of Requirements Files, which gave users the power to easily replicate environments.
Here’s a breakdown of the important differences between pip and the deprecated easy_install:
pip |
easy_install |
|
Installs from Wheels |
Yes |
No |
Uninstall Packages |
Yes (python -m pip uninstall) |
No |
Dependency Overrides |
Yes (Requirements Files) |
No |
List Installed Packages |
Yes (python -m pip list and python -m pip freeze) |
No |
PEP 438 Support |
Yes |
No |
Installation format |
‘Flat’ packages with egg-info metadata. |
Encapsulated Egg format |
sys.path modification |
No |
Yes |
Installs from Eggs |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes [1] |
|
No |
Yes |
|
Exclude scripts during install |
No |
Yes |
per project index |
Only in virtualenv |
Yes, via setup.cfg |
https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/deprecated/easy_install.html#natural-script-launcher