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.

(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.)

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).

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

Definitely!