Python - cant find pip.ini or pip.conf in Windows - windows

Question

I got Python 2.7.8 installed on my Win7 machine, which comes with pip already pre-installed. I'm successfully able to install new packages from pip and now I need to add custom repository url to the install list of pip
To do so I need to modify pip.ini which is in %APPDATA%\pip\pip.ini according to the Official Manual
However there are no pip folder anywhere (not in Roaming, not in Local, not in LocalLow)
nor there exists PyPa folder in: C:\ProgramData\PyPA\pip\pip.conf
Could you tell me where do i search for pip.ini? how to add foreign repo to the install list?

Answer 1

Instead of checking a list of well-known locations, you can ask pip to list the valid locations:
pip config -v list
Fun fact
On the same machine, with the same pip version, the valid locations can vary based on the actual Python version.
Environment: Win 7 x64, the HOME environment variable is set to D:\Home
Python 3.7.3:
> pip config -v list
For variant 'global', will try loading 'C:\ProgramData\pip\pip.ini'
For variant 'user', will try loading 'D:\Home\pip\pip.ini'
For variant 'user', will try loading 'C:\Users\foobar\AppData\Roaming\pip\pip.ini'
For variant 'site', will try loading 'C:\Python37\pip.ini'
Python 3.8.0:
> pip config -v list
For variant 'global', will try loading 'C:\ProgramData\pip\pip.ini'
For variant 'user', will try loading 'C:\Users\foobar\pip\pip.ini'
For variant 'user', will try loading 'C:\Users\foobar\AppData\Roaming\pip\pip.ini'
For variant 'site', will try loading 'C:\Python38\pip.ini'

Answer 2

Finally got it sorted.
Apparently for Windows users pip.ini config file is not created, however can be added manually!
just create new %APPDATA%\pip\pip.ini and content of custom repository:
[install]
find-links = https://<login>:<password>#your.repo.com/custom/url
Reference: https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/user_guide/#config-file

Answer 3

A bit late, but for reference:
Try adding the pip.ini file in %USERPROFILE%\pip\pip.ini (usually: C:\Users\<username>\pip\pip.ini).

Answer 4

On windows pip.exe looks for "pip.ini" in this order:
C:\ProgramData\pip\pip.ini
C:\Users\<username>\pip\pip.ini
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\pip\pip.ini

Answer 5

It's been 7 years, and I think there's now a better answer for most people -- but it does depend on version of pip. For the most recent pips I'm using:
$ pip config -v debug
lists where it's looking and you can decide which location is
most useful for what you've got in mind. It does look like a fairly recent
change: On a year-old docker image I had with pip 20.1
I got "ERROR: Need an action (edit, get, list, set, unset) to
perform." On that system, pip config -v list gave a list of files it would try, this is supposed to be 'global', 'user' or 'site' variants of pip.ini locations.
For Windows 10, for pip 21.2.4 on both 3.9.6 and 3.6.8, I get response below with pip config -v debug, while pip config -v list is silent (unless a pip.ini is found).
global:
C:\ProgramData\pip\pip.ini, exists: False
site:
c:\py\myvenv\pip.ini, exists: False
user:
C:\Users\myname\pip\pip.ini, exists: False
C:\Users\myname\AppData\Roaming\pip\pip.ini, exists: False
From a downloaded image I got from dockerhub in June 2021 with pip 21.2.2 and python 3.6.10:
pip config -v debug
env_var:
env:
global:
/etc/xdg/pip/pip.conf, exists: False
/etc/pip.conf, exists: True
global.extra-index-url: http://trynexs:8081/repository/repo_group/simple
site:
/usr/local/pip.conf, exists: False
user:
/home/tanhauser/.pip/pip.conf, exists: False
/home/tanhauser/.config/pip/pip.conf, exists: False

Answer 6

Pip changed the location of the config file in windows starting in pip 6.0 the pip config docs explain the location of the config files as follows.
pip --version >= 6 (as of version 18.1 hasn't changed again yet)
%APPDATA%\pip\pip.ini
pip --version < 6
%HOME%\pip\pip.ini
Inside a virtual env
%VIRTUAL_ENV%\pip.ini
Site-wide win7+ (same as of win10)
C:\ProgramData\pip\pip.ini
Site-wide winxp (note windows vista side wide not supported)
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\pip\pip.ini
NOTE: If multiple configuration files are found by pip then they are combined in the following order:
The site-wide file is read
The per-user file is read
The virtualenv-specific file is read
Also pip added a config command starting in pip 10.
pip config --help

Answer 7

I know this is a bit late, however, this post is high on the rankings when searching. Inside a virtual environment pip.ini can also be in the root of the virtual environment. From the docs and https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/user_guide/?highlight=pip.ini#configuration
Inside a virtualenv:
On Unix and macOS the file is $VIRTUAL_ENV/pip.conf
On Windows the file is: %VIRTUAL_ENV%\pip.ini

Answer 8

All the answers are partially wrong and right.
It depends on how your system is configured. The only way (for me) to find out was to patch site-packages/pip/locations.py at the point where site_config_files is assigned (around line 120 for pip 9.0.1)
print('########## ' + str(site_config_files))
and then run pip search foo
On my system it printed ########## ['C:\\ProgramData\\pip\\pip.ini'], of which location I assumed I could not create/edit. But it just worked.
Btw, for my system %APPDATA% points to C:\Users\MYUSER\AppData\Roaming, which is not looked at when running pip on my system.

Answer 9

Rather than guessing first check if you have any default global/local config which is read by pip with the below command:
pip config list
This will give all details of the default config loaded by python.
If the above command doesn't give any output please try to find where pip tries to find for the global config file with the below command:
pip config --editor <path to editor of your choice> edit
The above command will open the config file which pip reads by default or else it will give an error saying that the file doesn't exist.
If there's an error please go ahead and create the exact directory and file structure as show in the error. Once the file has been created please make your changes e.g.
[global]
cert = /path/to/base64/ssl/certificate.pem
proxy = http://username:password#ipaddress:port
Save the file and please try to check (the above mentioned check command) if the configs are loaded by pip or not.
For more info please follow pip config documentation

Answer 10

Make sure you acually have a pip.ini file, not pip.ini.txt.

Answer 11

For me (Windows 8, pip 9.0.1, python 3.5.3), the correct path was
c:\Users\<UserName>\.pypirc <- sic!, even on windows

Answer 12

Windows 10:
I had to create 'pip' directory inside
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\
then create pip.ini file inside that 'pip' directory:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\pip\pip.ini
No other location worked for me.

Answer 13

For Windows, python will load the config from path below. So, if pip.ini file is not exist in these paths you can create the new file by refer these path depend on environment scopes (global, user & site) that you need python execute.
For variant 'global', will try loading 'C:\ProgramData\pip\pip.ini'
For variant 'user', will try loading 'C:\Users\MyName\pip\pip.ini'
For variant 'user', will try loading 'C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Roaming\pip\pip.ini'
For variant 'site', will try loading 'c:\python39-32\pip.ini'
By the way, you can check the paths as above by
pip config -v list

Answer 14

On a Windows 10 machine with multiple users I used this:
c:\users\all users\pip\pip.ini
Using pip version 22.3.1 with python version 3.10.4..