pip: `ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip._vendor.pkg_resources'` AND `AttributeError: '_NamespacePath' object has no attribute 'sort'`

Pip version: I believe it is 8.1.2
Python version: 3.6.0
Operating system: Ubuntu Server 16.10 (x64)

Description:

Pip errors whenever I use the command. It doesn’t matter which command. python3.6 -m pip errors.

What I’ve run:

logandark@LD-Server:~$ python3.6 -m pip
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_vendor/__init__.py", line 33, in vendored
    __import__(vendored_name, globals(), locals(), level=0)
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip._vendor.pkg_resources'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/runpy.py", line 183, in _run_module_as_main
    mod_name, mod_spec, code = _get_module_details(mod_name, _Error)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/runpy.py", line 142, in _get_module_details
    return _get_module_details(pkg_main_name, error)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/runpy.py", line 109, in _get_module_details
    __import__(pkg_name)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/__init__.py", line 21, in <module>
    from pip._vendor.requests.packages.urllib3.exceptions import DependencyWarning
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_vendor/__init__.py", line 75, in <module>
    vendored("pkg_resources")
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_vendor/__init__.py", line 36, in vendored
    __import__(modulename, globals(), locals(), level=0)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 961, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 950, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 646, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 616, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pkg_resources-0.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2976, in <module>
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pkg_resources-0.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2962, in _call_aside
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pkg_resources-0.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3004, in _initialize_master_working_set
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pkg_resources-0.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2535, in activate
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pkg_resources-0.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2109, in declare_namespace
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pkg_resources-0.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2058, in _handle_ns
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pkg_resources-0.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2078, in _rebuild_mod_path
AttributeError: '_NamespacePath' object has no attribute 'sort'

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 7 years ago
Comments: 24 (5 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

I had this issue on Arch and fixed it with:

sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/
sudo pacman -Syu python-pip

+21

itay-grudev on Jun 4, 2018

Closing as duplicate of #4216. It should be fixed in master (pip install -I https://github.com/pypa/pip/archive/master.zip#egg=pip to test).

xavfernandez on Mar 27, 2017

So after using pip as root and seeing it working, I knew the erroneous package was in my ~/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages. Here’s what fixed it for me:

rm -rf ~/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/*

I’m not kidding either. I might also try reinstalling every package from a previous ls listing one by one to see which one caused the problem. I’m feeling lazy right now :p

LoganDark on Mar 14, 2017

One suggested solution on Anaconda3 in windows 10:

Find pip folder under “…/Anaconda3/Lib/site-packages/”, delete it manually.
then in Anacoda prompt do : conda uninstall pip
then install pip using your familiar way. E.g: conda install -c anaconda pip

ghost on Sep 29, 2017

@itay-grudev sometimes sudo pacman -Syu python-pip --force

sk0x1234 on Jun 7, 2018