Install pip Python package manager on FreeBSD 12

In this guide, we will look at how to  Install pip Python package manager on FreeBSD 12. pip is a package management system used to install and manage software packages written in Python.

There are two ways you can install pip on FreeBSD system. I have FreeBSD 12 installed on my Laptop:

# freebsd-version
12.2-RELEASE-p2

FreeBSD 12 comes with both Python3.7 and Python3.8.

# python<TAB>
python3.7         python3.7-config  python3.7m        python3.7m-config python3.8         python3.8-config

The default version I’m using is 3.8. Note that python command is not available on FreeBSD 12.

# which python
python: Command not found

You can create a symbolic link of Python3.8 binary to /usr/local/bin/python

# ln -s /usr/local/bin/python3.8 /usr/local/bin/python
# python --version
Python 3.8.13

Install Pip from py36-pip package:

# pkg install py38-pip
Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
FreeBSD repository is up to date.
All repositories are up to date.
The following 2 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked):

New packages to be INSTALLED:
	py38-pip: 20.3.4
	py38-setuptools: 57.0.0

Number of packages to be installed: 2

The process will require 19 MiB more space.
3 MiB to be downloaded.

Proceed with this action? [y/N]: y
[1/2] Fetching py38-pip-20.3.4.pkg: 100%    2 MiB   2.2MB/s    00:01
[2/2] Fetching py38-setuptools-57.0.0.pkg: 100%  786 KiB 804.8kB/s    00:01
Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
[1/2] Installing py38-setuptools-57.0.0...
[1/2] Extracting py38-setuptools-57.0.0: 100%
[2/2] Installing py38-pip-20.3.4...
[2/2] Extracting py38-pip-20.3.4: 100%
=====
Message from py38-pip-20.3.4:

--
pip MUST ONLY be used:

 * With the --user flag, OR
 * To install or manage Python packages in virtual environments

Failure to follow this warning can and will result in an inconsistent
system-wide Python environment (LOCALBASE/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages) and
cause errors.

Avoid using pip as root unless you know what you're doing.

Create a symbolic link for Pip-3.6 package:

# which pip-3.8
/usr/local/bin/pip-3.8

# ln -s /usr/local/bin/pip-3.8 /usr/local/bin/pip
# pip --version 
pip 20.3.4 from /usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pip (python 3.8)

Upgrade pip:

# pip install --upgrade pip
pip 20.3.4 from /usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pip (python 3.8)
[email protected]:~ # pip install --upgrade pip
Requirement already satisfied: pip in /usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages (20.3.4)
Collecting pip
  Downloading pip-22.1-py3-none-any.whl (2.1 MB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 2.1 MB 25.0 MB/s
Installing collected packages: pip
  Attempting uninstall: pip
    Found existing installation: pip 20.3.4
    Uninstalling pip-20.3.4:
      Successfully uninstalled pip-20.3.4
Successfully installed pip-22.1

Test pip usage

$ pip install awscli --user

If you install Python packages with Pip as a normal user, the binary is placed under .local/bin/

Add the Path to your PATH variable.

$ vim ~/.bashrc
export PATH=$PATH:.local/bin/

You should now have PIP Python package manager installed on FreeBSD 12.