VCS Support

pip supports installing from various version control systems (VCS). This support requires a working executable to be available (for the version control system being used). It is used through URL prefixes:

  • Git -- git+

  • Mercurial -- hg+

  • Subversion -- svn+

  • Bazaar -- bzr+

The general form of a VCS requirement is ProjectName @ VCS_URL, e.g.

MyProject @ git+https://git.example.com/MyProject
MyProject[extra] @ git+https:/git.example.com/MyProject

This is the Direct URL requirement syntax. It is also permissible to remove MyProject @ portion is removed and provide a bare VCS URL.

git+https://git.example.com/MyProject

This is a pip specific extension. This form can be used as long as pip does not need to know the project name in advance. pip is generally able to infer the project name except in the case of Editable VCS installs. In addition, extras cannot be requested using a bare VCS URL.

Supported VCS

Git

The supported schemes are git+file, git+https, git+ssh, git+http, git+git and git. Here are some of the supported forms:

MyProject @ git+ssh://git@git.example.com/MyProject
MyProject @ git+file:///home/user/projects/MyProject
MyProject @ git+https://git.example.com/MyProject

Warning

The use of git, git+git, and git+http schemes is discouraged. The former two use the Git Protocol, which lacks authentication, and HTTP is insecure due to lack of TLS based encryption.

It is also possible to specify a “git ref” such as branch name, a commit hash or a tag name:

MyProject @ git+https://git.example.com/MyProject.git@master
MyProject @ git+https://git.example.com/MyProject.git@v1.0
MyProject @ git+https://git.example.com/MyProject.git@da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709
MyProject @ git+https://git.example.com/MyProject.git@refs/pull/123/head

When passing a commit hash, specifying a full hash is preferable to a partial hash because a full hash allows pip to operate more efficiently (e.g. by making fewer network calls).

Mercurial

The supported schemes are hg+file, hg+http, hg+https, hg+ssh and hg+static-http. Here are some of the supported forms:

MyProject @ hg+http://hg.myproject.org/MyProject
MyProject @ hg+https://hg.myproject.org/MyProject
MyProject @ hg+ssh://hg.myproject.org/MyProject
MyProject @ hg+file:///home/user/projects/MyProject

It is also possible to specify a revision number, a revision hash, a tag name or a local branch name:

MyProject @ hg+http://hg.example.com/MyProject@da39a3ee5e6b
MyProject @ hg+http://hg.example.com/MyProject@2019
MyProject @ hg+http://hg.example.com/MyProject@v1.0
MyProject @ hg+http://hg.example.com/MyProject@special_feature

Subversion

The supported schemes are svn, svn+svn, svn+http, svn+https and svn+ssh. Here are some of the supported forms:

MyProject @ svn+https://svn.example.com/MyProject
MyProject @ svn+ssh://svn.example.com/MyProject
MyProject @ svn+ssh://user@svn.example.com/MyProject

You can also give specific revisions to an SVN URL, like so:

-e MyProject @ svn+http://svn.example.com/svn/MyProject/trunk@2019
-e MyProject @ svn+http://svn.example.com/svn/MyProject/trunk@{20080101}

Note that you need to use Editable VCS installs for using specific revisions from Subversion.

Bazaar

The supported schemes are bzr+http, bzr+https, bzr+ssh, bzr+sftp, bzr+ftp and bzr+lp. Here are the supported forms:

MyProject @ bzr+http://bzr.example.com/MyProject/trunk
MyProject @ bzr+sftp://user@example.com/MyProject/trunk
MyProject @ bzr+ssh://user@example.com/MyProject/trunk
MyProject @ bzr+ftp://user@example.com/MyProject/trunk
MyProject @ bzr+lp:MyProject

Tags or revisions can be installed like so:

MyProject @ bzr+https://bzr.example.com/MyProject/trunk@2019
MyProject @ bzr+http://bzr.example.com/MyProject/trunk@v1.0

Editable VCS installs

VCS projects can be installed in editable mode (using the --editable option) or not.

In editable mode, the project name must be provided upfront using the Direct URL (MyProject @ URL) form so pip can determine the VCS clone location.

  • The default clone location (for editable installs) is:

    • <venv path>/src/SomeProject in virtual environments

    • <cwd>/src/SomeProject for global Python installs

    The --src option can be used to modify this location.

  • For non-editable installs, the project is built locally in a temp dir and then installed normally.

Note that if a satisfactory version of the package is already installed, the VCS source will not overwrite it without an --upgrade flag. Further, pip looks at the package version, at the target revision to determine what action to take on the VCS requirement (not the commit itself).

URL fragments

pip looks at the subdirectory fragments of VCS URLs for specifying the path to the Python package, when it is not in the root of the VCS directory.

Note

pip also supports an egg fragment to specify the “project name”. This is a legacy feature and its use is discouraged in favour of the Direct URL form.

The egg fragment should be a bare project name. Anything else is not guaranteed to work.

Example

If your repository layout is:

pkg_dir
├── setup.py  # setup.py for package "pkg"
└── some_module.py
other_dir
└── some_file
some_other_file

Then, to install from this repository, the syntax would be:

$ python -m pip install "pkg @ vcs+protocol://repo_url/#subdirectory=pkg_dir"

$ python -m pip install "pkg @ vcs+protocol://repo_url/#subdirectory=pkg_dir"

C:> py -m pip install "pkg @ vcs+protocol://repo_url/#subdirectory=pkg_dir"

or:

$ python -m pip install -e "pkg @ vcs+protocol://repo_url/#subdirectory=pkg_dir"

$ python -m pip install -e "pkg @ vcs+protocol://repo_url/#subdirectory=pkg_dir"

C:> py -m pip install -e "pkg @ vcs+protocol://repo_url/#subdirectory=pkg_dir"