Confused by multiple versions of pip on mac

Question

I am trying to setup Python 3 on my mac computer and I seem to have many versions of pip on my computer, not sure which I should be using.

When I run pip --version in the terminal I get pip 19.2.3 from /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/pip-19.2.3-py2.7.egg/pip (python 2.7) which I am fairly certain is just the version that comes with mac os.

When I run python3 -m pip --version I get pip 20.1.1 from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pip (python 3.7)

When I run pip3 --version I then get pip 19.0.3 from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks/Python3.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pip (python 3.7)

I was hoping somebody could explain the differences between

user_13832218 · Answer

The first and third pips seem to be from the OS (assuming you're on Catalina?) and the second one seems to be the one you've installed.

See https://docs.python.org/3/using/mac.html and Python 3.7.3 Inadvertently Installed on Mac OS 10.15.1 - Included in Xcode Developer Tools 11.2 Now?

user_6416724 · Answer

The quick and nasty answer is each installation of python can have its own pip, which in turn will have a different pipenv. This is all based off of your path. Most people opt to use virtualenv to create an app specific python environment so as to not impact other python applications which depend on specific conflicting versions.

Confused by multiple versions of pip on mac

2 Answers