Install pip on debian system from packages

[luca3m]

Hi,

I'm trying to use this cookbook on Debian. I think it's better to install pip from packages. Is this a correct way to to this?

[jamesonjlee]

no yes no, what you did is going to get overwritten by the lines below where pip/setuptools get installed via get_pip.py.

you would have to create an attribute to denote if you want to install pip via system packaging vs get_pip (e.g. a large if node['python']['pip_install_method'] == 'package')

[luca3m]

Thank you for your feedback!

I changed my code according to your concerns, what do you think about it now?

[jamesonjlee]

what about virtualenv :3? I think this needs tests and you can bug the actual maintainers about being merged in.

[dhui]

@coderanger what do you think about this PR?
I also prefer installing pip via the system package manager to pin the version of pip.

[coderanger]

No, installing pip via system packages is out of scope for this cookbook. It moves too quickly to want to rely on distros.

[dhui]

How about if we don't overwrite existing system pip installs?
i.e. Just change line 28 to:

elsif platform_family?("rhel", "fedora", "debian")

instead.

[coderanger]

No, installing pip from system packages is literally wrong :-) Because it is only the client side of a rapidly evolving ecosystem (including server components not under your control) it is unwise to depend on backports for things like security fixes. At some point in the future when the wheel spec has solidified this will be viable, but for now it is irresponsible to version-lock pip the way distros do.

[dhui]

The python cookbook only installs pip once and doesn't support pinning pip to a version, which is a problem if you spin up servers at different times.

How do you recommend pinning the version of pip?

Maybe something like this?

include_recipe 'python'

python_pip 'pip' do
  action :upgrade
  version '1.5.6'
end