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pipx

Installs Python applications in their own environments, on the PATH

What it does

Installs a Python application into a virtual environment of its own and puts its commands on your PATH. Each application gets isolated dependencies, so two programs wanting incompatible versions of the same library can both work, and none of them touches the system Python.

Why you would want it

A number of ham programs ship only on PyPI -- not1mm and radiosonde_auto_rx among them -- and pip install into the system Python is both discouraged and, on Debian 13 and later, refused outright by PEP 668. pipx is the supported answer, and it is why AHRL installs it as a prerequisite before anything else (inventory unit 3).

Before it will work

Python 3, which every target has. pipx ensurepath adds ~/.local/bin to your PATH and needs a new shell before it takes effect -- the commonest first-run confusion.

How it installs

  • apt: pipx

Known problems

Because it installs into the user's home, a program installed with sudo lands in root's home and is invisible to you; AHRL works around this by running pipx as the user through pkexec and then generating a wrapper script. Versions across targets are far apart -- 1.7.1 on Debian 13 and Parrot, 1.8.0 on Ubuntu, 1.15.0 on Kali, 1.4.3 on Mint (measured 2026-08-28) -- and the command-line interface has grown in that range, so advice found online may name options an older build does not have.

Keeping it current

  • probe: apt policy
  • strategy: apt_upgrade

Where to get help with the software itself

The Python Packaging Authority. GitHub issues at the URL above.

Source: catalog/packages/pipx.yaml