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pythonpipfile-not-found

What is [Errno 2] in pip installation?

I am setting up pip using the official documentation on an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS system, and when I execute the python get-pip.py command, I get an error message stating:

python3: can't open file '/home/usr/get-pip.py': [Errno 2] No such file or directory

I thought it was an error on my part because python commands don't work in Linux distros and I aliased the python3 command:

alias python='python3'

The problem persisted. A quick Google Search led me to this solution and my error was solved.

Afterwards, I did some digging on what [Errno 2] is but all of the material I encountered was hyperfocused on solving this error and not what causes it.

Solution

  • It's not pip-specific. It's documented in errno, specifically:

    errno.ENOENT

    No such file or directory. This error is mapped to the exception FileNotFoundError.

    If you didn't know to look for "No such file or directory", you could use os.strerror() or errno.errorcode:

    >>> import os
>>> os.strerror(2)
'No such file or directory'
>>> 
>>> import errno
>>> errno.errorcode[2]
'ENOENT'