Python pip install fails: invalid command egg_info
pip, python
Solution
Install distribute, which comes with `egg_info`.
Should be as simple as `pip install Distribute`.
Distribute has been merged into Setuptools as of version 0.7. If you are using a version <=0.6, upgrade using `pip install --upgrade setuptools` or `easy_install -U setuptools`.
Problem
I find that recently often when I try to install a Python package using pip, I get the error(s) below. I found a reference online that one has to use "python2 setup.py install" from the download directory, and indeed find that this will then work if I manually find and download the package (from pypi). But, I don't know where pip is downloading packages to, and/or why it is failing in this manner. I tried to do a pip upgrade, but it also failed in a similar manner, with a bunch of "Unknown distribution option" errors (entry_points, zip_safe, test_suite, tests_require)! - pip 1.0.1 - ActivePython 2.7 Trying to use ActiveState's pypm fails, because they have a smaller library base, and it doesn't include these packages. ``` C:\test>pip install requests-oauth Downloading/unpacking requests-oauth Downloading requests-oauth-0.4.1.tar.gz Running setup.py egg_info for package requests-oauth E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'zip_safe' warnings.warn(msg) E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'install_requires' warnings.warn(msg) usage: -c [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...] or: -c --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...] or: -c --help-commands or: -c cmd --help error: invalid command 'egg_info' Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info: E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'zip_safe' warnings.warn(msg) E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'install_requires' warnings.warn(msg) usage: -c [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...] or: -c --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...] or: -c --help-commands or: -c cmd --help error: invalid command 'egg_info' ```