`python -m ensurepip --upgrade` does not seem to be upgrading pip and setuptools

Question

I am on a Mac running Yosemite (Mac OS X 10.10.1) and homebrew installed python and python3 and python -m ensurepip --upgrade does not seem to be working as I would have expected.

python -m ensurepip --upgrade does not upgrade pip or setuptools.

pip install --upgrade pip setuptools upgrades pip to 6.0.7 and upgrades setuptools to 12.0.5.

Same results with Python3. Do I misunderstand the purpose of ensurepip?

Answer 1

Per the documentation:

This module does not access the internet. All of the components needed to bootstrap pip are included as internal parts of the package.

and (emphasis mine):

To ensure the installed version of pip is at least as recent as the one bundled with ensurepip, pass the --upgrade option