finds.dev← search

// the find

mitsuhiko/pipsi

★ 1,993 · Python · NOASSERTION · updated May 2019

pip script installer

pipsi is an abandoned Python CLI tool installer that gave each pip-installed script its own virtualenv, symlinking the entry points into ~/.local/bin. It solved the 'sudo pip or polluted global site-packages' problem cleanly, and is now superseded by pipx, which the README itself tells you to use instead.

The core idea was sound and arrived before the ecosystem had a standard answer to this problem. The directory layout — one venv per package, symlinked bin entries — is clean and predictable. It was small enough to read in an afternoon. The installer script was a single curl-pipe-python, which worked reliably before that pattern got vilified.

Abandoned since 2019 with no further development; the README's first line is a deprecation notice. pipx does everything pipsi did plus more (run without installing, inject packages into existing envs, list/inspect installed apps). No reason to adopt this today. The test suite is minimal and the CI config (Travis, Appveyor) points to infrastructure that's effectively dead or paywalled for open source.

View on GitHub →

// want more like this?

We dig through GitHub every week and send a few repos picked for what you actually care about — each with an honest take like this one.

Get finds in your inbox → Search again →