The 'pip==7.1.0' distribution was not found and is required by the application

I have the latest version of pip 8.1.1 on my ubuntu 16. But I am not able to install any modules via pip as I get this error all the time.

File "/usr/local/bin/pip", line 5, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2927, in <module>
    @_call_aside
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2913, in _call_aside
    f(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2940, in _initialize_master_working_set
    working_set = WorkingSet._build_master()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 635, in _build_master
    ws.require(__requires__)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 943, in require
    needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 829, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req, requirers)
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The 'pip==7.1.0' distribution was not found and is required by the application

I found a similar link, but not helpful.

Solution 1:

I repaired mine this with command:

easy_install pip

Solution 2:

I had this issue for a very long time until I recently found that my 'pip' file (/usr/local/bin/pip) is trying to load the wrong version of pip. I believe you also have 8.1.1 correctly installed on your machine and can give following a try.

1. Open your /usr/local/bin/pip file. For me it looks like :

   __requires__ = 'pip==9.0.1'
   import sys
   from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
   if __name__ == '__main__':
       sys.exit(
           load_entry_point('pip==9.0.1', 'console_scripts', 'pip')()
   )
   

2. Change 'pip==9.0.1' in line 1 and last line to whichever version you have installed on your system, for example you will need to change 7.1.0 to 8.1.1.

Basically /usr/local/bin/pip is an entry file for loading the pip required version module. Somehow when I am upgrading/changing pip installation this file is not getting updated and so I update it manually every time.

Solution 3:

I did not manage to get it to work by using easy_install pip or updating the pip configuration file /usr/local/bin/pip.

Instead, I removed pip and installed the distribution required by the conf file:

Uninstalling pip:

$ sudo apt purge python-pip or $ sudo yum remove python-pip

Reinstalling required distribution of pip (change the distribution accordingly):

$ sudo easy_install pip==9.0.3