How do I remove packages installed with Python's easy_install?

pip, an alternative to setuptools/easy_install, provides an "uninstall" command.

Install pip according to the installation instructions:

$ wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
$ python get-pip.py

Then you can use pip uninstall to remove packages installed with easy_install

To uninstall an .egg you need to rm -rf the egg (it might be a directory) and remove the matching line from site-packages/easy-install.pth

First you have to run this command:

$ easy_install -m [PACKAGE]

It removes all dependencies of the package.

Then remove egg file of that package:

$ sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/python2.X/site-packages/[PACKAGE].egg

All the info is in the other answers, but none summarizes both your requests or seem to make things needlessly complex:

For your removal needs use: pip uninstall (install using easy_install pip)

For your 'list installed packages' needs either use: pip freeze Or: yolk -l which can output more package details. (Install via easy_install yolk or pip install yolk)

There are several sources on the net suggesting a hack by reinstalling the package with the -m option and then just removing the .egg file in lib/ and the binaries in bin/. Also, discussion about this setuptools issue can be found on the python bug tracker as setuptools issue 21.

Edit: Added the link to the python bugtracker.

If the problem is a serious-enough annoyance to you, you might consider virtualenv. It allows you to create an environment that encapsulates python libraries. You install packages there rather than in the global site-packages directory. Any scripts you run in that environment have access to those packages (and optionally, your global ones as well). I use this a lot when evaluating packages that I am not sure I want/need to install globally. If you decide you don't need the package, it's easy enough to just blow that virtual environment away. It's pretty easy to use. Make a new env:

$>virtualenv /path/to/your/new/ENV

virtual_envt installs setuptools for you in the new environment, so you can do:

$>ENV/bin/easy_install

You can even create your own boostrap scripts that setup your new environment. So, with one command, you can create a new virtual env with, say, python 2.6, psycopg2 and django installed by default (you can can install an env-specific version of python if you want).

Official(?) instructions: http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/EasyInstall#uninstalling-packages

If you have replaced a package with another version, then you can just delete the package(s) you don't need by deleting the PackageName-versioninfo.egg file or directory (found in the installation directory). If you want to delete the currently installed version of a package (or all versions of a package), you should first run: easy_install -mxN PackageName This will ensure that Python doesn't continue to search for a package you're planning to remove. After you've done this, you can safely delete the .egg files or directories, along with any scripts you wish to remove.

try

$ easy_install -m [PACKAGE]

then

$ rm -rf .../python2.X/site-packages/[PACKAGE].egg

To list installed Python packages, you can use yolk -l. You'll need to use easy_install yolk first though.

Came across this question, while trying to uninstall the many random Python packages installed over time.

Using information from this thread, this is what I came up with:

cat package_list | xargs -n1 sudo pip uninstall -y

The package_list is cleaned up (awk) from a pip freeze in a virtualenv.

To remove almost all Python packages:

yolk -l | cut -f 1 -d " " | grep -v "setuptools|pip|ETC.." | xargs -n1 pip uninstall -y

I ran into the same problem on my MacOS X Leopard 10.6.blah.

Solution is to make sure you're calling the MacPorts Python:

sudo port install python26
sudo port install python_select
sudo python_select python26
sudo port install py26-mysql

Hope this helps.

For me only deleting this file : easy-install.pth worked, rest pip install django==1.3.7

This worked for me. It's similar to previous answers but the path to the packages is different.

sudo easy_install -m sudo rm -rf /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/.egg

Plaform: MacOS High Sierra version 10.13.3