pip won't run. throws errors instead

I am running into problems when ever I run pip with any arguments or flags. I've tried doing apt-get install --reinstall python-pip but it does not help and am at a loss how to fix this

Version of Ubuntu

$ lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS Release: 14.04 Codename: trusty 

Version of Python

$ python --version Python 2.7.6 

Pip version

$ dpkg -l | grep pip ii python-pip 1.5.4-1 all alternative Python package installer 

Error, I get the exact same error no matter what arguments or flags I try.

$ pip Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/bin/pip", line 9, in <module> load_entry_point('pip==1.5.4', 'console_scripts', 'pip')() File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 351, in load_entry_point return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 2363, in load_entry_point return ep.load() File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 2088, in load entry = __import__(self.module_name, globals(),globals(), ['__name__']) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/__init__.py", line 11, in <module> from pip.vcs import git, mercurial, subversion, bazaar # noqa File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/vcs/mercurial.py", line 9, in <module> from pip.download import path_to_url File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/download.py", line 25, in <module> from requests.compat import IncompleteRead ImportError: cannot import name IncompleteRead 

6 Answers

Seems to be a bug that it is reported here

It should work if you install a later version of pip.

You can remove the current pip installation with:

sudo apt-get purge python-pip 

Then install it from github(it is a later version):

wget python get-pip.py 

Edit
If it still won't work try this as it says so in the installation documentation(after you installed the new version):

To enable the use of pip from the command line, ensure the Scripts subdirectory of your Python installation is available on the system PATH. (This is not done automatically.)

References:

This problem is caused by a mismatch between your pip installation and your requests installation. First remove the python-pip package and then install the latest version of pip. Open the terminal and type:

sudo apt remove python-pip sudo apt install python-setuptools sudo easy_install -U pip 

To update pip for Python 3.x replace python-pip with python3-pip, replace python-setuptools with python3-setuptools, and replace easy_install with easy_install3.

Well, the get-pip.py script from github is outdated, and the latest version is on pypa as follows:

sudo apt-get purge python-pip wget python get-pip.py 

I had the same error and same Ubuntu versions. easy_install was not working either. Doing apt-get --reinstall had not worked.

You might try recompiling:

sudo python >>>import compileall >>>compileall.compile_dir('/usr/lib/python2.7', force=True) 

now "pip list" works (I had previously removed all the pyc files but I don't think it is necessary or safe)

Create a Symbolic link to /user/bin

sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/pip /usr/bin/

Reinstalling python-pip from this website worked for me:

sudo apt-get purge python-pip wget python get-pip.py --user