DistutilsOptionError: must supply either home or prefix/exec-prefix — not both

Question

I\'ve been usually installed python packages through pip.

For Google App Engine, I need to install packages to another target directory.

I\'ve tried:

Answer 1

As other mentioned, this is known bug with pip & python installed with homebrew.

If you create ~/.pydistutils.cfg file with "empty prefix" instruction it will fix this problem but it will break normal pip operations.

Until this bug is officially addressed, one of the options would be to create your own bash script that would handle this case:

 #!/bin/bash

 name=''
 target=''

 while getopts 'n:t:' flag; do
     case "${flag}" in
         n) name="${OPTARG}" ;;
         t) target="${OPTARG}" ;;
     esac
 done

 if [ -z "$target" ];
 then
     echo "Target parameter must be provided"
     exit 1
 fi

 if [ -z "$name" ];
 then
     echo "Name parameter must be provided"
     exit 1
 fi

 # current workaround for homebrew bug
 file=$HOME'/.pydistutils.cfg'
 touch $file

 /bin/cat <$file
 [install]
 prefix=
 EOM
 # end of current workaround for homebrew bug

 pip install -I $name --target $target

 # current workaround for homebrew bug
 rm -rf $file
 # end of current workaround for homebrew bug

This script wraps your command and:

1. accepts name and target parameters
2. checks if those parameters are empty
3. creates ~/.pydistutils.cfg file with "empty prefix" instruction in it
4. executes your pip command with provided parameters
5. removes ~/.pydistutils.cfg file

This script can be changed and adapted to address your needs but you get idea. And it allows you to run your command without braking pip. Hope it helps :)