permission denied when installing python packages through cygwin

Question

I'm working on a windows 7 and using Cygwin for unix-like functionality. I can write and run Python scripts fine from the Cygwin console, and the installation of Python packages using pip install is successful and the installed package appears under pip list . However, if I try to run a script that imports these packages, for example the 'aloe' package, I get the error "no such module named 'aloe'".

I have discovered that the packages are being installed to c:\\python27\\lib\\site-packages, ie the computer's general list of python packages, and not to /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages, ie the list of python packages available within Cygwin. I don't know how to rectify this though. If I try to specify the install location using easy_install-3.6 aloe I get the error

[Errno 13] Permission denied: '/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/test-easy-install-7592.write-test'.

In desperation also tried directly copying the 'aloe' directory to the Cygwin Python packages directory using cmd with cp -r \\python27\\lib\\site-packages\\aloe \\cygwin\\lib\\python3.6\\site-packages and the move was successful, but the problem persists and when I check in the Cygwin console using ls /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages I can't see 'aloe'.

I have admin rights to the computer in general ( sudo is not available in Cygwin anyway) so really can't figure out what the problem is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

just make sure you are in admin mode.

ie right click on Cygwin, select running as administrator .

then install your package specifically using pip3, for python3.

ie pip3 install your_package

with updated version, do pip3 install --upgrade your_package