installing requests module for python 2.7.13

Question

[Python-2.7] I was trying to install the requests module in python using the following commands

import pip pip.main(['install', 'requests']) and I run in to these issues:

Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/basecommand.py", line 215, in main
    status = self.run(options, args)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/commands/install.py", line 342, in run
    prefix=options.prefix_path,
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/req/req_set.py", line 784, in install
    **kwargs
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/req/req_install.py", line 851, in install
    self.move_wheel_files(self.source_dir, root=root, prefix=prefix)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/req/req_install.py", line 1064, in move_wheel_files
    isolated=self.isolated,
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/wheel.py", line 345, in move_wheel_files
    clobber(source, lib_dir, True)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/wheel.py", line 316, in clobber
    ensure_dir(destdir)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/utils/__init__.py", line 83, in ensure_dir
    os.makedirs(path)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/os.py", line 157, in makedirs
    mkdir(name, mode)
OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/certifi-2017.7.27.1.dist-info'
2

Can anyone help me? I really appreciate it.

Answer 1

You need to either run this program as superuser or install this package locally (with the --user flag)

import pip; 
pip.main(['install', '--user', 'requests'])

The problem here is that pip cannot write files to /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ because it doesn't have enough privileges.