uv: `uv pip install --system` cannot create directory

A minimal code snippet that reproduces the bug.

uv pip install --python 3.12 pre-commit
Resolved 10 packages in 44ms
error: Failed to install: cfgv-3.4.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (cfgv==3.4.0)
  Caused by: failed to create directory `/usr/local/lib/python3.12/dist-packages/cfgv-3.4.0.dist-info`
  Caused by: Permission denied (os error 13)

The current uv platform.

Ubuntu 22.04

The current uv version (uv --version).

uv 0.1.12

pip defaults to .local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ if the directory is not writeable

About this issue

Original URL
State: open
Created 4 months ago
Comments: 18 (11 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

This was also requested here: https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/issues/1584. I’m more open to supporting --user than to doing this automatic fallback.

charliermarsh on Feb 28, 2024

(Aside: we plan to add pipx-like global installs for tools (https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/issues/1173). We actually have all the pieces we need to do this.)

charliermarsh on Feb 28, 2024

In case you don’t want to implement this automatic fallback, I think a more specific error message would be helpful (e.g. pointing to --user or uv venv).

NMertsch on Feb 28, 2024

Yeah, that’s something we want to transparently support in the future.

charliermarsh on Mar 17, 2024

Definitely!

charliermarsh on Feb 28, 2024