Print installation path when running `uv pip install`

[danielhollas]

Hey :wave:

Small feature request: It would be great if uv printed the path where it is installing the packages when running uv pip install. I am currently debugging a weird issue in GHA while using uv pip install --system and it is not clear how to check where uv ends up installing stuff.

[charliermarsh]

Have you tried running with --verbose?

[danielhollas]

Yeah, indeed running with verbose prints this:

 uv_interpreter::python_query::find_default_python 
      0.004003s   0ms DEBUG uv_interpreter::python_query Starting interpreter discovery for default Python
      0.004109s   0ms DEBUG uv_interpreter::interpreter Probing interpreter info for: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64/bin/python3
      0.039094s  35ms DEBUG uv_interpreter::interpreter Found Python 3.10.13 for: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64/bin/python3
    0.039395s DEBUG uv::commands::pip_install Using Python 3.10.13 environment at /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64/bin/python3

To me, this is not very easy to parse, and even find among the rest of the huge debug output. At least for the --system flag seems like a good info to print by default, especially given the number of issues / corner cases that have been reported (and fixed!) for this particular option. But of course opinions might vary. :-)

[woutervh]

it is not clear how to check where uv ends up installing stuff.

I've already been bitten multiple times by this, installing stuff in the wrong venv. Because I have 100 venvs on my system,
and I really dislike activating a venv (because it's an anti-patteren creating state in that specific shell.)

with actual pip, it's not really an issue, because you are always using the pip from inside the virtualenv

> uv pip install pytest
Resolved 4 packages in 286ms
Downloaded 1 package in 64ms
Installed 4 packages in 21ms
 + iniconfig==2.0.0
 + pytest==8.0.2
  ...

A much more userfriendly output would be to include the path somewhere

> uv pip install pytest
Resolved 4 packages.                                <- I don't care about how many millisecs it takes,  it's visual pollution
Downloaded 1 package.                           <- which one?  what if I don't expect to download anything new?
Installed 4 packages in /tmp/foo/.venv/   <- include path
  ...
  + iniconfig==2.0.0
 + pytest==8.0.2  (dowloaded)

[danielhollas]

So, I love the new more concise verbose output (-v), however, I will still lobby for uv to print the install location by default. :blush:

As previous commenter pointed out, it's too easy to make a mistake and not notice it (e.g. forgetting to deactivate the environment, switch to different directory with its own .venv, and then running uv pip install)

[charliermarsh]

Considering starting by showing the path if it's not .venv (i.e., a virtualenv in the current working directory).

[AlexWaygood]

Considering starting by showing the path if it's not .venv (i.e., a virtualenv in the current working directory).

I think this would be really useful. I was just caught out by uv unexpectedly installing things into my ~dev/.venv environment, rather than my ~dev/project/env environment, because I didn't have the latter activated, and uv searched up through the directory structure until it found a virtual environment called .venv.

[ChannyClaus]

another separate, but related nicety would be printing out the Location column that pip list --verbose prints:

$ pip list --verbose
Package            Version     Location                                                            Installer
------------------ ----------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------
asttokens          2.4.1       /Users/chankang/.pyenv/versions/3.12.2/lib/python3.12/site-packages uv
build              1.2.1       /Users/chankang/.pyenv/versions/3.12.2/lib/python3.12/site-packages uv

[zanieb]

I think it'd be reasonable to start with this: https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/issues/2155#issuecomment-2019302112

[danielenricocahall]

Hi! I wanted to look into this - would it be a matter of updating the line in uv/src/commands/pip/operations.rs to something like:

        writeln!(
            printer.stderr(),
            "{}",
            format!(
                "Installed {} in {} to {}",
                format!("{} package{}", wheels.len(), s).bold(),
                elapsed(start.elapsed()),
                venv.python_executable().display()
            )
            .dimmed()
        )?;

Based on the test results it looks correct (although it looks like we would need to update the snapshots)

Installed 3 packages in [TIME] to /private/var/folders/7s/q0mx5qbs78bfgpclqx_8tknm0000gn/T/.tmpRu7Vx5/.venv/bin/python3

[zanieb]

We'd want to only display the path if it's not in the working directory which would require some sort of if/else. As a minor note, we use .user_display() for paths. Otherwise that seems like a reasonable place to start. Maybe we should print

Installing to environment at {path}

before this message instead of adding to the end of it?

[danielenricocahall]

Sure! I have something like this:

        let python_executable = venv.python_executable();
        let venv_dir_canonical = fs::canonicalize(".venv").unwrap_or(PathBuf::from(".venv"));
        let is_outside_working_directory = !(python_executable.starts_with(&venv_dir_canonical));
        if is_outside_working_directory {
            writeln!(
                printer.stderr(),
                "{}",
                format!(
                    "Installing to environment at {}",
                    python_executable.user_display()
                )
            )?;
        }

I wasn't sure the best way to check for being in .venv so definitely open to suggestions there