How to Resolve: Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable in Python?

How to Resolve: Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable in Python?

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Introduction

In Python, you may encounter the error "defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable" when you try to install a package using pip. This error occurs because the system-level site-packages directory is not writable, so pip defaults to installing packages in the user-level site-packages directory. This tutorial will explain how to resolve this issue.

Understanding site-packages directories

In Python, there are two types of site-packages directories: system-level and user-level.

  • The system-level site-packages directory is located at /usr/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages and is used to store packages that are available to all users on the system.
  • The user-level site-packages directory is located at ~/.local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages and is used to store packages that are only available to the current user.

The problem

The error "defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable" occurs when you try to install a package in the system-level site-packages directory, but do not have the necessary permissions. In this case, pip defaults to installing the package in the user-level site-packages directory.

Resolving Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable Error in Python

There are two ways to resolve the issue of defaulting to user installation:

Option 1: Install the package using sudo

If you have administrative privileges, you can use sudo to install the package in the system-level site-packages directory. To do this, run the following command:

sudo pip install <package_name>

For example, to install the requests package, you would run:

sudo pip install requests

Option 2: Install the package in the user-level site-packages directory

If you do not have administrative privileges, you can still install the package in the user-level site-packages directory. To do this, you need to add the --user option to the pip install command.

pip install --user <package_name>

For example, to install the requests package in the user-level site-packages directory, you would run:

pip install --user requests

See also: How to Resolve error: "legacy-install-failure" in Python?

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to resolve the issue of defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable in Python. By either using sudo or the --user option, you can install packages in the desired site-packages directory.

Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable FAQs

What is the error "defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable" in Python?

The error "defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable" occurs when you try to install a package using pip and the system-level site-packages directory is not writable. In this case, pip defaults to installing the package in the user-level site-packages directory, which is writeable by the current user.

Why do I need to install packages in the system-level site-packages directory?

In some cases, you may need to install packages in the system-level site-packages directory so that they are available to all users on the system. For example, if you're setting up a shared server and want all users to have access to the same packages, you'll need to install them in the system-level site-packages directory.

How can I install packages in the system-level site-packages directory if I don't have administrative privileges?

If you don't have administrative privileges, you can still install packages in the user-level site-packages directory. To do this, you need to add the --user option to the pip install command. For example: pip install --user.