Rye vs Pipx?

[AlJohri]

One of the my biggest issues with pipx has been that it doesn't own its own python binary (#244). Today I found out that rye solves this problem and can serve as a potential replacement for pipx. Check the Global Tools section in the README:

If you want tools to be installed into isolated virtualenvs (like pipsi and pipx), you can use rye too (requires ~/.rye/shims to be on the path):

$ rye install pycowsay
$ pycowsay Wow

 ---
< Wow >
 ---
  \   ^__^
   \  (oo)\_______
      (__)\       )\/\
          ||----w |
          ||     ||

To uninstall run rye uninstall pycowsay again.

It apparently uses this python:

No System Python: I can't deal with any more linux distribution weird Python installations or whatever mess there is on macOS. I used to build my own Pythons that are the same everywhere, now I use indygreg's Python builds. Rye will automatically download and manage Python builds from there. No compiling, no divergence.

Example showing how rye manages its own python:

❯ rye toolchain fetch 3.10
Downloading [email protected]
Checking checksum
success: Downloaded [email protected]

❯ rye toolchain list
[email protected] (/home/aljohri/.rye/py/[email protected]/install/bin/python3)
[email protected] (/home/aljohri/.rye/py/[email protected]/install/bin/python3)
[email protected] (/home/aljohri/.rye/py/[email protected]/install/bin/python3)
...

Example installing global tools with rye:

❯ rye install csvkit
...
Installed scripts:
  - csvclean
  - csvcut
  - csvformat
  - csvgrep
  - csvjoin
  - csvjson
  - csvlook
  - csvpy
  - csvsort
  - csvsql
  - csvstack
  - csvstat
  - in2csv
  - sql2csv

note: additional scripts were encountered in non-installed dependencies.

❯ which csvcut
~/.rye/shims/csvcut

❯ csvcut --version
csvcut 1.2.0

What do other folks think of this approach? Anyone else using rye over pipx? Can pipx also stop relying on the system python?

[dukecat0]

Can pipx also stop relying on the system python?

I had a thought of using pyapp to build binary distributions which have self-contained Python, but looks like folks aren't happy with it. #278 (comment)

[uranusjr]

My feeling is as long as PIPX_PYTHON is available, using python-build-standalone by default should be a good idea. This would resolve the pipx installation problem as well since we no longer need to worry about accomodating users installing pipx against all different kinds of Python distributions.

[alextremblay]

i'm ok with pipx itself being installed onto a system python, but i would love it if pipx could manage its own python versions the way rye does.

$ ls ~/.local/pipx/
logs py shared  venvs

$ ls ~/.local/pipx/py
[email protected]  [email protected]  [email protected]

I think it would be amazing if you could do pipx run --python=3.11 cowsay -t hello and have pipx download [email protected] from indygreg's Python builds (if it hasn't already) and then use that python installation's venv to create a new pipx venv for cowsay

[alextremblay]

in fact, this may already be possible... there's a lovely little library called yen that can manage python installations in a specific folder, and it uses indygreg's python builds

it's MIT-licensed, so perhaps pipx could vendor all or part of yen's implementation...

If any of the maintainers are interested in this, let me know, I'll start working on a PR for it :)