PIP-DOWNLOAD(1)

💅 PIP-DOWNLOAD(1) 💅

okay so this is the pip manual, bestie — specifically the pip-download page, and it's literally your new fave way to grab packages without installing them. welcome to the group chat 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

pip-download — the whole description of the pip download command, and yes we're gonna read all of it together 💖

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so like, pip download grabs packages from... a bunch of places, honestly:

• PyPI (and other indexes) using requirement specifiers ✨
• VCS project urls 🦋
• Local project directories 🎀
• Local or remote source archives 🌈

and pip also supports downloading from "requirements files", which is lowkey the icon behavior of letting you specify a whole entire environment to be downloaded in one go. no cap, it's giving efficiency 👑

💜 USAGE 💜

here's the rundown of all the ways you can invoke it:

python -m pip download [options] <requirement specifier> [package-index-options] ...
python -m pip download [options] -r <requirements file> [package-index-options] ...
python -m pip download [options] <vcs project url> ...
python -m pip download [options] <local project path> ...
python -m pip download [options] <archive url/path> ...

pick your fighter, they're all valid 💅

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

• -c, --constraint <file> — constrains versions using the given constraints file. you can use this option multiple times, which is so slay.

(environment variable: PIP_CONSTRAINT)

• -r, --requirement <file> — install from the given requirements file. can be used multiple times, ngl that's handy.

(environment variable: PIP_REQUIREMENT)

• --no-deps — don't install package dependencies. periodt, no extras.

(environment variable: PIP_NO_DEPS, PIP_NO_DEPENDENCIES)

• --global-option <options> — extra global options to be supplied to the setup.py call before the install or bdist_wheel command.

(environment variable: PIP_GLOBAL_OPTION)

• --no-binary <format_control> — do not use binary packages. can be supplied multiple times, and each time it adds to the existing value. accepts either ":all:" to disable all binary packages, ":none:" to empty the set (notice the colons — yes bestie, the colons MATTER 💀), or one or more package names with commas between them (no colons). heads up tho: some packages are tricky to compile and may fail to install when this option is used on them 😭

(environment variable: PIP_NO_BINARY)

• --only-binary <format_control> — do not use source packages. can be supplied multiple times, and each time it adds to the existing value. accepts either ":all:" to disable all source packages, ":none:" to empty the set, or one or more package names with commas between them. packages without binary distributions will fail to install when this option is used on them, so like... be aware 🙈

(environment variable: PIP_ONLY_BINARY)

• --prefer-binary — prefer binary packages over source packages, even if the source packages are newer. yes queen, prioritize convenience.

(environment variable: PIP_PREFER_BINARY)

• --src <dir> — directory to check out editable projects into. the default in a virtualenv is "<venv path>/src". the default for global installs is "<current dir>/src".

(environment variable: PIP_SRC, PIP_SOURCE, PIP_SOURCE_DIR, PIP_SOURCE_DIRECTORY)

• --pre — include pre-release and development versions. by default, pip only finds stable versions. main character behavior only, sorry to the betas 😌

(environment variable: PIP_PRE)

• --require-hashes — require a hash to check each requirement against, for repeatable installs. this option is implied when any package in a requirements file has a --hash option. security slay 🔐

(environment variable: PIP_REQUIRE_HASHES)

• --progress-bar <progress_bar> — specify whether the progress bar should be used [on, off, raw] (default: on). we love a little visual confirmation ✨

(environment variable: PIP_PROGRESS_BAR)

• --no-build-isolation — disable isolation when building a modern source distribution. build dependencies specified by PEP 518 must already be installed if this option is used. like, they HAVE to be, no skipping ⚠️

(environment variable: PIP_NO_BUILD_ISOLATION)

• --use-pep517 — use PEP 517 for building source distributions (use --no-use-pep517 to force legacy behaviour). the way that's a whole fork in the road 🦋

(environment variable: PIP_USE_PEP517)

• --check-build-dependencies — check the build dependencies when PEP517 is used.

(environment variable: PIP_CHECK_BUILD_DEPENDENCIES)

• --ignore-requires-python — ignore the Requires-Python information. living dangerously, love that for you 💅

(environment variable: PIP_IGNORE_REQUIRES_PYTHON)

• -d, --dest <dir> — download packages into <dir>.

(environment variable: PIP_DEST, PIP_DESTINATION_DIR, PIP_DESTINATION_DIRECTORY)

• --platform <platform> — only use wheels compatible with <platform>. defaults to the platform of the running system. use this option multiple times to specify multiple platforms supported by the target interpreter. multi-platform queen 👑

(environment variable: PIP_PLATFORM)

• --python-version <python_version> — the Python interpreter version to use for wheel and "Requires-Python" compatibility checks. defaults to a version derived from the running interpreter. the version can be specified using up to three dot-separated integers (e.g. "3" for 3.0.0, "3.7" for 3.7.0, or "3.7.3"). a major-minor version can also be given as a string without dots (e.g. "37" for 3.7.0). so many options bestie 🎀

(environment variable: PIP_PYTHON_VERSION)

• --implementation <implementation> — only use wheels compatible with Python implementation <implementation>, e.g. 'pp', 'jy', 'cp', or 'ip'. if not specified, then the current interpreter implementation is used. use 'py' to force implementation-agnostic wheels.

(environment variable: PIP_IMPLEMENTATION)

• --abi <abi> — only use wheels compatible with Python abi <abi>, e.g. 'pypy_41'. if not specified, then the current interpreter abi tag is used. use this option multiple times to specify multiple abis supported by the target interpreter. generally you will need to specify --implementation, --platform, and --python-version when using this option — like, they're a package deal fr fr 🌸

(environment variable: PIP_ABI)

• --group <[path:]group> — install a named dependency-group from a "pyproject.toml" file. if a path is given, the name of the file must be "pyproject.toml". defaults to using "pyproject.toml" in the current directory.

(environment variable: PIP_GROUP)

• --no-clean — don't clean up build directories. leave the mess, it's aesthetic 💀

(environment variable: PIP_NO_CLEAN)

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🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

pip developers — the icons behind all of this 🫶

⭐ COPYRIGHT ⭐

The pip developers

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and that's the whole page bestie, you ate that 💅✨

version 25.1 — dated Jun 26, 2025 — mwah, go download something cute 🎀