'pip' is not recognized as an internal or external command

user3597950 picture user3597950 · May 17, 2014 · Viewed 1.2M times · Source

I'm running into a weird error when trying to install Django on my computer.

This is the sequence that I typed into my command line:

C:\Python34> python get-pip.py
Requirement already up-to-date: pip in c:\python34\lib\site-packages
Cleaning up...

C:\Python34> pip install Django
'pip' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Python34> lib\site-packages\pip install Django
'lib\site-packages\pip' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

What could be causing this?

This is what I get when I type in echo %PATH%:

C:\Python34>echo %PATH%
C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.8.8-Q16;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\iCLS Client\
;C:\Program Files\Intel\iCLS Client\;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\S
ystem32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\
Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\OpenCL SDK\2.0\bin\x86;C:\Progr
am Files (x86)\Intel\OpenCL SDK\2.0\bin\x64;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Mana
gement Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine C
omponents\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components
\DAL;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\P
rogram Files (x86)\nodejs\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Heroku\bin;C:\Program Files (x
86)\git\cmd;C:\RailsInstaller\Ruby2.0.0\bin;C:\RailsInstaller\Git\cmd;C:\RailsIn
staller\Ruby1.9.3\bin;C:\Users\Javi\AppData\Roaming\npm

Answer

fr1tz picture fr1tz · May 17, 2014

You need to add the path of your pip installation to your PATH system variable. By default, pip is installed to C:\Python34\Scripts\pip (pip now comes bundled with new versions of python), so the path "C:\Python34\Scripts" needs to be added to your PATH variable.

To check if it is already in your PATH variable, type echo %PATH% at the CMD prompt

To add the path of your pip installation to your PATH variable, you can use the Control Panel or the setx command. For example:

setx PATH "%PATH%;C:\Python34\Scripts"

Note: According to the official documentation, "[v]ariables set with setx variables are available in future command windows only, not in the current command window". In particular, you will need to start a new cmd.exe instance after entering the above command in order to utilize the new environment variable.

Thanks to Scott Bartell for pointing this out.