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This article was co-authored by Matt Ham and by wikiHow staff writer, Hannah Dillon. Matt Ham is a Computer Repair Specialist and the CEO and President of Computer Repair Doctor. With over a decade of experience, Matt specializes in Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, and Smartphone repairs and upgrades. Matt holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University. Matt has expanded Computer Repair Doctor to seven different locations. He is also a Co-Owner of Repair Life, a full-scale marketing agency specializing in driving both online and offline leads to cell phone and computer repair shops and device retailers.
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Are you trying to use Pip to uninstall a Python package? Thankfully, whether you're on Windows, macOS, or Unix (Linux) this is a simple task. In this article we'll go over all the steps to uninstall a package with Pip, including some optional steps to remove dependencies or globally-installed packages.
Quick Pip Uninstallation Steps
- Open your terminal or command prompt.
- Start the command with python (Unix/macOS) or py (Windows).
- Write pip -m uninstall [packagename].
- Press Enter/Return to execute the command.
- Type y to confirm the uninstallation.
Steps
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![Step 1 Determine which pip command to use.]()
Determine which pip command to use. While you most commonly may use pip, there are different pip commands you can use depending on your circumstances:- pip: Python 2.7
- pip3.4: Python 3.4
- pip3.6: Python 3.6
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![Step 2 Open a terminal or command window.]()
Open a terminal or command window. The program you open to use Pip depends on your operating system.Advertisement -
![Step 3 Enter the pip uninstall command.]()
Enter the pip uninstall command. If you're on Unix or macOS, start your command with python. If you're on Windows, start it with py. Then, write the following command:-
-m pip uninstall [packagename][1]
- Replace pip with one of the alternatives in step 1, if necessary.
- Replace [packagename] with the name of the package you want to uninstall.
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-m pip uninstall [packagename][1]
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![Step 4 Execute the command, then type y to continue.]()
Execute the command, then type y to continue. The terminal will ask if you want to proceed when you attempt to uninstall a file. Type y to proceed (or no to cancel the uninstall). -
![Step 5 Uninstall the package globally, if necessary.]()
Uninstall the package globally, if necessary. If you installed a package globally as well as locally, uninstalling it globally is necessary to cleanly remove the package from your computer.- Windows: After entering the command window, press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+↵ Enter to get admin privileges, then execute the pip uninstall [packagename] command again.
- Unix/macOS: After opening a terminal window, execute the command sudo su pip uninstall [packagename].
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![Step 6 Uninstall package dependencies, if necessary.]()
Uninstall package dependencies, if necessary. Some packages also install dependencies, and these are not removed when you uninstall a package. There are two ways you can remove dependent packages:- Run a pip uninstall requirements.txt command. If the requirements file is not named requirements.txt, change the command to the proper requirements file name.
- Run pip show [packagename] to see the dependencies for the given package. You can then use pip uninstall to uninstall these packages.
- Always make sure the dependent packages are not dependencies for other packages you still have installed.
Expert Q&A
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Pure distutils packages installed with setup.py install and script wrappers installed with setup.py develop cannot be removed with pip.Thanks
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