Python Question
Identifying the dependency relationship for python packages installed with pip
When I do a pip freeze I see large number of Python packages that I didn't explicitly install, e.g.
$ pip freeze
Cheetah==2.4.3
GnuPGInterface==0.3.2
Landscape-Client==11.01
M2Crypto==0.20.1
PAM==0.4.2
PIL==1.1.7
PyYAML==3.09
Twisted-Core==10.2.0
Twisted-Web==10.2.0
(etc.)
Is there a way for me to determine why pip installed these particular dependent packages? In other words, how do I determine the parent package that had these packages as dependencies?
For example, I might want to use Twisted and I don't want to depend on a package until I know more about not accidentally uninstalling it or upgrading it.
Answer
The pip show command will show what packages are required for the specified package (note that the specified package must already be installed):
$ pip show specloud
Package: specloud
Version: 0.4.4
Requires:
nose
figleaf
pinocchio
pip show was introduced in pip version 1.4rc5
Source (Stackoverflow)