Setup

PyPM is installed automatically with ActivePython. Currently only Windows, Linux and MacOSX builds include PyPM.

To use PyPM, your computer must be connected to the internet (to access the ActiveState PyPM repository), or have access to a PyPM repository on a local hard drive or network share.

If you connect to the internet through a firewall or proxy, you may need to set the http_proxy environment variable (see Proxies and Firewalls).

All PyPM operations are performed at the command line.

Finding packages

Use the the search command to find the package you are looking for. This returns substring matches in the name or description:

C:\> pypm search django url
 django-localeurl A Django application that
 django-shorturls A short URL (rev=cannonical)
 django-auto-urls Django app that try to load
...

Installing packages

Installing packages is simple:

C:\> pypm install pylons

This command will download pylons and its depdendencies automatically. Unless the -g option is specified, packages are not installed into the ActivePython installation directory. Instead, PyPM follows the PEP 370 specification and installs packages by default in ~/.local on Unix and Mac and %APPDATA%\Python on Windows; and the Python interpreter automatically picks up the local packages. To find where the package was installed, use the show or files command.

Uninstalling packages

To uninstall packages:

C:\> pypm uninstall mako

Uninstalling a package will automatically uninstall other packages that depend upon that package.

Upgrading packages

To upgrade all installed packages to the latest version from the repository:

C:\> pypm upgrade

Showing package details

The 'list' command shows the currently installed packages:

C:\> pypm list
jsontools  0.1-1   jsontools - Useful utilities for JSON
simplejson 2.0.9-1 Simple, fast, extensible JSON encoder/decoder for Python
paste      1.7.2-1 Tools for using a Web Server Gateway Interface stack
...

The 'show' command displays information about a specified package in the repository:

C:\> pypm show mako
Name: mako
Version: 0.2.5-1
Author: Mike Bayer <mike@zzzcomputing.com>
Description: A super-fast templating language that borrows the
best ideas from the existing templating languages.
Home Page: http://www.makotemplates.org/
License: MIT
Dependencies: Beaker>=1.1
Status: Not installed

The 'files' command displays all files installed by a specified package:

$ pypm files mako
~/.local/bin
~/.local/bin/mako-render
~/.local/lib
...

Other commands

The 'help' command provides details on specific sub commands. Abbreviations for the command is shown in parentheses:

C:\> pypm help list
list (l): List the currently installed packages

Usage:
    pypm list

The 'info' command shows the PyPM version, Python version, platform and repositories:

$ pypm info
PyPM 1.1.1 (ActivePython 2.6)
Installation target: ~\Application Data\Python (2.6) (win32-x86)
(type "pypm info --full" for detailed information)