Searching the net this seems to be a problem caused by spaces in the Python installation path.

How do I get pip to work without having to reinstall everything in a path without spaces ?

it seems that

python -m pip install XXX 

will work anyway (worked for me) (see link by user474491)

On Windows at least, pip stores the execution path in the executable pip.exe when it is installed.

Edit this file using a hex editor or WordPad (you have to save it as plain text then to retain binary data), change the path to Python with quotes and spaces like this:

#!"C:\Program Files (x86)\Python33\python.exe"

to an escaped path without spaces and quotes and pad with spaces (dots at the end should be spaces):

#!C:\Progra~2\Python33\python.exe.............

For “C:\Program Files”, this path would probably be “C:\Progra~1” (shortened path names in DOS / Windows 3.x notation use tilde and numbers). Windows provides this alternative notation for backwards compatibility with DOS / Windows 3.x apps.

Note that as this is a binary file, you should not change the file size which may break the executable, hence the padding.

Save with administrator privileges, make sure it is actually saved at the target location and try again.

You might also need to set the PATH variable to use the ~ notation for the path to pip.

having the same trouble I read in https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/installing.html#install-pip that to update pip it’s:

python -m pip install -U pip

So I made (for example)

python -m pip install virtualenv

And it worked! So you can do the same being ‘virtualenv’ another package you want.

python -m pip

really works for the problem Fatal error in launcher: Unable to create process using '"'.Worked on Windows 10

I had a similar issue and upgrading pip fixed it for me.

python -m pip install --upgrade pip 

This was on Windows and the path to python inside pip.exe was incorrect. See Archimedix answer for more information about the path.

Here’s how I solved it:

1. open pip.exe in 7zip and extract __main__.py to Python\Scripts folder.

   In my case it was C:\Program Files (x86)\Python27\Scripts

2. Rename __main__.py to pip.py

3. Run it! python pip.py install something

EDIT:

If you want to be able to do pip install something from anywhere, do this too:

1. rename pip.py to pip2.py (to avoid import pip errors)

2. make C:\Program Files (x86)\Python27\pip.bat with the following contents:

python “C:\Program Files (x86)\Python27\Scripts\pip2.py” %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

1. add C:\Program Files (x86)\Python27 to your PATH (if is not already)

2. Run it! pip install something

This is a known Bug when there is a space in the virtualenv path. Correction has been made, and will be available in the next version.

i had same issue and did a pip upgrade using following and now it works fine. python -m pip install --upgrade pip

I wrote a script to patch those exe. But the best way is to fix distutil itself.

"""Fix "Fatal error in launcher: Unable to create process using ..." error. Put me besides those EXE made by pip. (They are made by distutils, and used by pip)"""
import re
import sys
import os
from glob import glob


script_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
real_int_path = sys.executable
_t = script_path.rpartition(os.sep)[0] + os.sep + 'python.exe'
if script_path.lower().endswith('scripts') and os.path.isfile(_t):
    real_int_path = _t

print('real interpreter path: ' + real_int_path)
print()

for i in glob('*.exe'):
    with open(i, 'rb+') as f:
        img = f.read()
        match = re.search(rb'#![a-zA-Z]:\\.+\.exe', img)
        if not match:
            print("can't fix file: " + i)
            continue
        int_path = match.group()[2:].decode()
        int_path_start = match.start() + 2
        int_path_end = match.end()

        if int_path.lower() == real_int_path.lower():
            continue
        print('fix interpreter path: %s in %s' % (int_path, i))
        f.seek(int_path_start)
        f.write(real_int_path.encode())
        f.write(img[int_path_end:])

I had the same issue on windows 10, after trying all the previous solution the problem persists so I decided to uninstall my python 2.7 and install the version 2.7.13 and it works perfectly.

This can happen if you are using a case-sensitive file system on Windows. You can tell if this is the case if there is both a lib directory and a Lib directory in your venv directory :

> dir

Directory: C:\git\case\sensitive\filesystem\here\venv

Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----        4/07/2018   4:10 PM                Include
d-----       22/01/2019   7:52 AM                Lib
d-----       22/01/2019   7:52 AM                lib
d-----       22/01/2019   7:52 AM                Scripts
d-----       22/01/2019   7:52 AM                tcl

To workaround this (until virtualenv.py gets fixed: https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/issues/935) merge the two lib directories and make venv case-insensitive:

cd venv
move Lib rmthis
move .\rmthis\site-packages\ lib
rmdir rmthis
fsutil.exe file setCaseSensitiveInfo . disable

Please add this address :

C:\Program Files (x86)\Python33

in Windows PATH Variable

Though first make sure this is the folder where Python exe file resides, then only add this path to the PATH variable.

To append addresses in PATH variable, Please go to

Control Panel -> Systems -> Advanced System Settings -> Environment Variables -> System Variables -> Path -> Edit ->

Then append the above mentioned path & click Save

I renamed the executable of python.exe to e.g. python27.exe. In respect to the answer of Archimedix I opened my pip.exe with a Hex-Editor, scrolled to the end of the file and changed the python.exe in the path to python27.exe. While editing make shure you don’t override other informations.

I added my anwer because I have getting the same error while configure ODDO9 source code in local and its need the exe to run while run exe, I got the same error.

From yesterday I was configure oddo 9.0 (section :- “Python dependencies listed in the requirements.txt file.”) and its need to run PIP exe as

C:\YourOdooPath> C:\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install -r requirements.txt

My oddo path is :- D:\Program Files (x86)\Odoo 9.0-20151014 My pip location is :- D:\Program Files (x86)\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe

So I open command prompt and go to above oddo path and try to run pip exe with these combination, but not given always above error.

1. D:\Program Files (x86)\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install -r requirements.txt

2. “D:\Program Files (x86)\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install -r requirements.txt” Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install -r requirements.txt

3. “Python27/Scripts/pip.exe install -r requirements.txt”

I resolved my issue by the @user4154243 answer, thanks for that.

Step 1: Add variable(if your path is not comes in variable’s path).

Step 2: Go to command prompt, open oddo path where you installed.

Step 3: run this command python -m pip install XXX will run and installed the things.

i solve my problem in Window if u install both python2 and python3

u need enter someone \Scripts change all file.exe to file27.exe,then it solve

my D:\Python27\Scripts edit django-admin.exe to django-admin27.exe so it done

My exact problem was (Fatal error in launcher: Unable to create process using ‘”‘) on windows 10. So I navigated to the “C:\Python33\Lib\site-packages” and deleted django folder and pip folders then reinstalled django using pip and my problem was solved.

I have chosen to install Python for Windows (64bit) not for all users, but just for me.

Reinstalling Python-x64 and checking the advanced option “for all users” solved the pip problem for me.

Here is how i fixed it.

1. Download https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
2. Active your vitualenv
3. Navigate to the get-pip.py file and type “python get-pip.py” without quote.

it will reinstall your pip within the environment and uninstall the previous version automatically.

now boom!! install whatever you like

Try reinstall by using the below link,

Download https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py

After download, copy the “get-pip.py” to python installed main dirctory, then open cmd and navigate to python directory and type “python get-pip.py” (without quotes)

Note: Also make sure the python directory is set in the environmental variable.

Hope this might help.

For me this problem appeared when I changed the environment path to point to v2.7 which was initially pointing to v3.6. After that, to run pip or virtualenv commands, I had to python -m pip install XXX as mentioned in the answers below.

So, in order to get rid of this, I ran the v2.7 installer again, chose change option and made sure that, add to path option was enabled, and let the installer run. After that everything works as it should.

I had this issue and the other fixes on this page didn’t fully solve the problem.

What did solve the problem was going in to my system environment variables and looking at the PATH – I had uninstalled Python 3 but the old path to the Python 3 folder was still there. I’m running only Python 2 on my PC and used Python 2 to install pip.

Deleting the references to the nonexistent Python 3 folders from PATH in addition to upgrading to the latest version of pip fixed the issue.

I had a simpler solution. Using @apple way but rename main.py to pip.py then put it in your python version scripts folder and add scripts folder to your path access it globally. if you don’t want to add it to path you have to cd to scripts and then run pip command.

On Windows I had solved this problem in the following way :

1) uninstalled Python

2) navigated to C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Programs(your should turn on hidden files visibility Show hidden files instruction)

3) deleted ‘Python’ folder

4) installed Python

I have similar problem when I reinstall my python, by uninstalling python3.7 and installing python3.8. But I solved it by removing the previous version of python directory. For me it was located here,

C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Local\Programs\Python

I deleted the folder named Python37 (for previous version) and keep Python38 (for updated version). This worked because python itself seems having a trouble on finding the right directory for your python scripts.

I was trying to install some site-packages like numpy, xgboost and so on, but this error showed up every time:

Fatal error in launcher: Unable to create process using

I’ve tried many ways to solve this problem and found this one, that successfully helped me:

python -m pip freeze

Hope it’ll help someone too.

P.S. I found this solution here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/39733705/10310794

You can remove previous python folder and also environment variable path from you pc then Reinstall python .it will be solve

Instead of calling ipython directly, it is loaded using Python such as

$ python “full path to ipython.exe”

I find that recently often when I try to install a Python package using pip, I get the error(s) below.

I found a reference online that one has to use “python2 setup.py install” from the download directory, and indeed find that this will then work if I manually find and download the package (from pypi).

But, I don’t know where pip is downloading packages to, and/or why it is failing in this manner.

I tried to do a pip upgrade, but it also failed in a similar manner, with a bunch of “Unknown distribution option” errors (entry_points, zip_safe, test_suite, tests_require)!

• pip 1.0.1
• ActivePython 2.7

Trying to use ActiveState’s pypm fails, because they have a smaller library base, and it doesn’t include these packages.

C:\test>pip install requests-oauth
Downloading/unpacking requests-oauth
  Downloading requests-oauth-0.4.1.tar.gz
  Running setup.py egg_info for package requests-oauth
    E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'zip_safe'
      warnings.warn(msg)
    E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'install_requires'
      warnings.warn(msg)
    usage: -c [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...]
       or: -c --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...]
       or: -c --help-commands
       or: -c cmd --help

    error: invalid command 'egg_info'
    Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
    E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'zip_safe'
  warnings.warn(msg)

E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'install_requires'
  warnings.warn(msg)

usage: -c [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...]
   or: -c --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...]
   or: -c --help-commands
   or: -c cmd --help

error: invalid command 'egg_info'

Install distribute, which comes with egg_info.

Should be as simple as pip install Distribute.

Distribute has been merged into Setuptools as of version 0.7. If you are using a version <=0.6, upgrade using pip install --upgrade setuptools or easy_install -U setuptools.

As distribute has been merged back into setuptools, it is now recommended to install/upgrade setuptools instead:

[sudo] pip install --upgrade setuptools

Bear in mind you may have to do pip install --upgrade Distribute if you have it installed already and your pip may be called pip2 for Python2 on some systems (it is on mine).

I had this issue, as well as some other issues with Brewed Python on OS X v10.9 (Mavericks).

sudo pip install --upgrade setuptools

didn’t work for me, and I think my setuptools/distribute setup was botched.

I finally got it to work by running

sudo easy_install -U setuptools

None of the above worked for me on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin), and here’s how I fixed it in the end:

Download ez_setup.py from download setuptools (see “Installation Instructions” section) then:

$ sudo python ez_setup.py

I hope it saves someone some time.

This error can occur when you trying to install pycurl.

In this case you should do

sudo apt-get install libcurl4-gnutls-dev librtmp-dev

(founded here: https://gist.github.com/lxneng/1031014 )

On CentOS 6.5, the short answer from a clean install is:

yum -y install python-pip pip install -U pip pip install -U setuptools pip install -U setuptools

You are not seeing double, you must run the setuptools upgrade twice. The long answer is below:

Installing the python-pip package using yum brings python-setuptools along as a dependency. It’s a pretty old version and hence it’s actually installing distribute (0.6.10). After installing a package manager we generally want to update it, so we do pip install -U pip. Current version of pip for me is 1.5.6.

Now we go to update setuptools and this version of pip is smart enough to know it should remove the old version of distribute first. It does this, but then instead of installing the latest version of setuptools it installs setuptools (0.6c11).

At this point all kinds of things are broken due to this extremely old version of setuptools, but we’re actually halfway there. If we now run the exact same command a second time, pip install -U setuptools, the old version of setuptools is removed, and version 5.5.1 is installed. I don’t know why pip doesn’t take us straight to the new version in one shot, but this is what’s happening and hopefully it will help others to see this and know you’re not going crazy.

Looks like the default easy_install is broken in its current location:

$ which easy_install /usr/bin/easy_install

A way to overcome this is to use the easy_install in site packages. For example:

$ sudo python /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/easy_install.py boto

I was facing the same issue and I tried all the above answers. But unfortunately, none of the above worked.

As a note, I finally solve this by pip uninstall distribute.

I know this is an older question but here are the steps I used to get cassandra-driver to actually install on Windows 7 / Python2. I have windows 10 / Python3 at home where I will test this tonight. I have confirmed this also works on Windows 10 with both Python 2 and 3.

Problem

Command "python setup.py egg_info" failed with error code 1 in c:\users\Frito\appdata\local\temp\pip-build-7dgmdc\cassandra-driver

TL;DR Solution

• Installed https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44266 (Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler for Python 2.7)

Solution (I’d love for someone to explain why this worked)

• Attempted pip install cassandra-driver and got the above error message
• Attempted pip install --pre cassandra-driver and got the following error

distutils.errors.DistutilsError: Setup script exited with error: Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 is required (Unable to find vcvarsall.bat).
Get it from http://aka.ms/vcpython27

Command "c:\users\Frito\.virtualenvs\symdash\scripts\python.exe -u -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='c:\\users\\Frito\\appdata\\local\\temp\\pip-build-sesxxu\\cassandra-driver\\setup.py';exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --record  c:\users\Frito\appdata\local\temp\pip-ujsxsk-record\install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile --install-headers c:\users\Frito\.virtualenvs\symdash\include\site\python2.7\cassandra-driver"  failed with error code 1 in  c:\users\Frito\appdata\local\temp\pip-build-sesxxu\cassandra-driver

• Installed Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler for Python 2.7
• Successfully executed pip install --pre cassandra-driver
• Successfully executed pip uninstall cassandra-driver
• Successfully executed pip install cassandra-driver

To reiterate, I’m not really sure why this worked. Right now my two leading conclusions are that either the C++ compiler is required or that running the --pre option the first time installed some dependencies that were missing from the ‘regular’ install. I’ll update tonight after work when I have more details.

pip install -U setuptools and easy_install was putting egg-info in the wrong directory.

Then I just reinstalled apt-get install python-dev. Let me install the drivers I want after that

try the following command:

pip install setuptools==28.8.0

I just convert liquidki’s answer into Ubuntu commands. On an Ubuntu based system it works!:

sudo apt -y install python-pip
pip install -U pip
sudo pip install -U setuptools

For me upgrading pip from 8.1.1 to 9.0.1 solved this problem.

You can run something like sudo -H pip2 install --upgrade pip to upgrade your pip version.

I also meet a similar error message “Command ‘python setup.py egg_info’ failed with error code 1” when I want to install cairosvg with command pip install cairosvg in a virtual environment.

Then I have tried both pip install --upgrade pip and pip install --upgrade setuptools before running pip3 install cairosvg, but I still get this error.

I can get rid of this error with sudo in front of the installation command : sudo pip install cairosvg. But note that the command with sudo will install the package for the system python rather than the virtual environment.

So, I further check the error message and find that I get the error while installing the cairocffi. Then I install a certain version of cairocffi (refer to this answer) before install cairosvg. That is how I solve my problem.

I know it’s an easy way of doing it but i didn’t find it neither here nor on google. So i was curious if there is a way to install multiple packages using pip. Something like:

pip install progra1 , progra2 ,progra3 ,progra4 . 

or:

pip install (command to read some txt containing the name of the modules) 

For installing multiple packages on the command line, just pass them as a space-delimited list, e.g.:

pip install wsgiref boto

For installing from a text file, then, from pip install --help:

-r FILENAME, –requirement=FILENAME

Install all the packages listed in the given requirements file. This option can be used multiple times.

Take a look at the pip documentation regarding requirements files for their general layout and syntax – note that you can generate one based on current environment / site-packages with pip freeze if you want a quick example – e.g. (based on having installed wsgiref and boto in a clean virtualenv):

$ pip freeze
boto==2.3.0
wsgiref==0.1.2

pip install -r requirements.txt

and in the requirements.txt file you put your modules in a list, with one item per line.

• Django=1.3.1

• South>=0.7

• django-debug-toolbar

You can install packages listed in a text file called requirements file. For example, if you have a file called req.txt containing the following text:

Django==1.4
South==0.7.3

and you issue at the command line:

pip install -r req.txt

pip will install packages listed in the file at the specific revisions.

Complementing the other answers, you can use the option --no-cache-dir to disable caching in pip. My virtual machine was crashing when installing many packages at once with pip install -r requirements.txt. What solved for me was:

pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

give the same command as you used to give while installing a single module only pass it via space delimited format