Python – How to remove packages installed with Python’s easy_install

easy-installpackagespythonsetuptools

Python's easy_install makes installing new packages extremely convenient. However, as far as I can tell, it doesn't implement the other common features of a dependency manager – listing and removing installed packages.

What is the best way of finding out what's installed, and what is the preferred way of removing installed packages? Are there any files that need to be updated if I remove packages manually (e.g. by rm /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/my_installed_pkg.egg or similar)?

Best Answer

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