pipx is a tool to help you install and run end-user applications written in Python. It's roughly similar to macOS's brew, JavaScript's npx, and Linux's apt. It's closely related to pip. In fact, it uses pip, but is focused on installing and managing Python packages that can be run from the command line directly as applications. pip is a general-purpose package installer for both libraries and apps with no environment isolation. pipx is made specifically for application installation, as it adds isolation yet still makes the apps available in your shell: pipx creates an isolated environment for each application and its associated packages. pipx does not ship with pip, but installing it is often an important part of bootstrapping your system. By default, pipx uses the same package index as pip, PyPI. pipx can also install from all other sources pip can, such as a local directory, wheel, git url, etc.
Features
- Python and PyPI allow developers to distribute code with "console script entry points
- Call into Python code from the command line
- pipx is a tool to install and run any of these thousands of application-containing packages
- It turns Python Package Index (PyPI) into a big app store for Python applications
- Easily list, upgrade, and uninstall packages that were installed with pipx
- Run the latest version of a Python application in a temporary environment with the run command