Pip doesn't install latest available version from pypi (argparse in this case)
argparse, macos, pip, pypi, python
Solution
I think this line is the key:
Some externally hosted files were ignored (use --allow-external to allow).
When I install argparse here I get
You are installing an externally hosted file. Future versions of pip will default to disallowing externally hosted files.
Downloading argparse-1.2.1.tar.gz (69kB): 69kB downloaded
So you have a newer version of pip that is disallowing externally hosted files by default
Problem
The problem I worked on some python projects lately and had lots of problems with `pip` not installing the latest versions of some requirements. I am on `osx` and and I used brew to install `Python 2.7.6`. In the project I'm working on, we simply install requirements like this: ``` pip install -r requirements.txt ``` In the current case, I needed to install `argparse==1.2.1`. This is the actual latest version shown on the pypi website Here's my output ``` Downloading/unpacking argparse==1.2.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 4)) Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement argparse==1.2.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 4)) (from versions: 0.1.0, 0.2.0, 0.3.0, 0.4.0, 0.5.0, 0.6.0, 0.7.0, 0.8.0, 0.9.0, 0.9.1, 1.0.1, 1.0, 1.1) Some externally hosted files were ignored (use --allow-external to allow). Cleaning up... No distributions matching the version for argparse==1.2.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 4)) ``` I had similar problems with different kinds of requirements such as `matplotlib` which I installed manually as seen here. As you can see, pip on my mac only has those argparse versions: `0.1.0, 0.2.0, 0.3.0, 0.4.0, 0.5.0, 0.6.0, 0.7.0, 0.8.0, 0.9.0, 0.9.1, 1.0.1, 1.0, 1.1` Attempts to fix I tried reinstalling python with `brew reinstall python`, then also tried to reinstall all of my installed python packages with some `xargs` magic: ``` pip freeze | xargs -I {} pip install {} --upgrade --force-reinstall ``` While trying to reinstall everything, I had trouble with most of the packages: `error: invalid command 'egg_info'`. I figured out I had an old `setuptools` so I ran this to upgrade: ``` pip install --upgrade setuptools ``` and I could now reinstall everything, but still, same problem with `argparse`. I asked a friend with a freshly installed osx to `pip install argparse` and he got `1.1` So I've setup a `precise32` vagrant box for a clean ubuntu install with `python-dev` + `libevent-dev` and had no trouble at all installing `argparse==1.2.1`. Workaround To continue working on the project, I installed argparse 1.1 on macOS and it seems to work fine at the moment for what I'm working on. Questions Is-there any reason why I'm not getting the latest versions shown on pypi? Sounds like not all the libs on pypi are available for osx. Is there a way to know version availability for different os?