Trying to install python six with pip runs into problems on Ubuntu 16.04

When I am trying to install six with pip I am getting some error...

$ pip install six
Collecting six
Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/basecommand.py", line 209, in main status = self.run(options, args) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/commands/install.py", line 328, in run wb.build(autobuilding=True) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/wheel.py", line 748, in build self.requirement_set.prepare_files(self.finder) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/req/req_set.py", line 360, in prepare_files ignore_dependencies=self.ignore_dependencies)) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/req/req_set.py", line 512, in _prepare_file finder, self.upgrade, require_hashes) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/req/req_install.py", line 273, in populate_link self.link = finder.find_requirement(self, upgrade) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/index.py", line 442, in find_requirement all_candidates = self.find_all_candidates(req.name) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/index.py", line 400, in find_all_candidates for page in self._get_pages(url_locations, project_name): File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/index.py", line 545, in _get_pages page = self._get_page(location) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/index.py", line 648, in _get_page return HTMLPage.get_page(link, session=self.session) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/index.py", line 757, in get_page "Cache-Control": "max-age=600", File "/usr/share/python-wheels/", line 480, in get return self.request('GET', url, **kwargs) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/download.py", line 378, in request return super(PipSession, self).request(method, url, *args, **kwargs) File "/usr/share/python-wheels/", line 468, in request resp = self.send(prep, **send_kwargs) File "/usr/share/python-wheels/", line 576, in send r = adapter.send(request, **kwargs) File "/usr/share/python-wheels/", line 46, in send resp = super(CacheControlAdapter, self).send(request, **kw) File "/usr/share/python-wheels/", line 376, in send timeout=timeout File "/usr/share/python-wheels/", line 610, in urlopen _stacktrace=sys.exc_info()[2]) File "/usr/share/python-wheels/", line 228, in increment total -= 1
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for -=: 'Retry' and 'int'

What can I do about this?

1 Answer

Six is a Python 2 and 3 compatibility library. It provides utility functions for smoothing over the differences between the Python versions with the goal of writing Python code that is compatible on both Python versions.

To install the python-six package from the default Ubuntu 16.04 repositories:

sudo apt install python-six 

To install six globally with pip, open the terminal and type:

sudo -H pip2 install --upgrade pip
sudo pip install six 

To install six locally with pip (e.g. in a Python virtual environment):

python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install --user six