Setup In Virtualenv: `pip Install -e .` Vs `python Setup.py Install`

I'm following a Flask tutorial that has me using virtualenv, and with it I built an app directory tree that looks like this: app/ |__app/ |__app.egg-inf/ |__setup.py |__venv/ Insi

Solution 1:

First, the commands you mention are not equivalent, specifically python setup.py install does not give you an editable installation. The pip <-> python setup.py equivalents are:

Editable   pip                    setup.py
yes        pip install -e .       python setup.py develop    
no         pip install .          python setup.py install    

With that said, using pip is in general recommended for a range of reasons:

• Dependencies are automatically installed
• There is an easy way to uninstall

In your case, I highly suspect that your package has a dependency which is automatically installed if you use pip, but not if you use python setup.py install.