Latest 'pip' fails with “requires setuptools >= 0.8 for dist-info”

Question

Using the recent (1.5) version of pip, I get an error when attempting to update several packages. For example, sudo pip install -U pytz results in

Answer 1

This worked for me:

sudo pip install setuptools --no-use-wheel --upgrade

Note it's usage of sudo

UPDATE

On window you just need to execute pip install setuptools --no-use-wheel --upgrade as an administrator. In unix/linux, sudo command is for elevating permissions.

UPDATE

This appears to have been fixed in 1.5.1.

Answer 2

First, you should never run 'sudo pip'.

If possible you should use your system package manager because it uses GPG signatures to ensure you're not running malicious code.

Otherwise, try upgrading setuptools:

easy_install -U setuptools

Alternatively, try:

pip install --user <somepackage>

This is of course for "global" packages. You should ideally be using virtualenvs.