Upgrade python packages from requirements.txt using pip command

Question

How do I upgrade all my python packages from requirements.txt file using pip command?

tried with below command

$ pip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt

Since, the python packages are suffixed with the version number (Django==1.5.1) they don't seem to upgrade. Is there any better approach than manually editing requirements.txt file?

EDIT

As Andy mentioned in his answer packages are pinned to a specific version, hence it is not possible to upgrade packages through pip command.

But, we can achieve this with pip-tools using the following command.

$ pip-review --auto

this will automatically upgrade all packages from requirements.txt (make sure to install pip-tools using pip install command).

Answer 1

I already answered this question here. Here's my solution:

Because there was no easy way for upgrading package by package, and updating the requirements.txt file, I wrote this pip-upgrader which also updates the versions in your requirements.txt file for the packages chosen (or all packages).

Installation

pip install pip-upgrader

Usage

Activate your virtualenv (important, because it will also install the new versions of upgraded packages in current virtualenv).

cd into your project directory, then run:

pip-upgrade

Advanced usage

If the requirements are placed in a non-standard location, send them as arguments:

pip-upgrade path/to/requirements.txt

If you already know what package you want to upgrade, simply send them as arguments:

pip-upgrade -p django -p celery -p dateutil

If you need to upgrade to pre-release / post-release version, add --prerelease argument to your command.

Full disclosure: I wrote this package.