[TIP] Initial ‘tox’ invocation fails: “AssertionError: Multiple .dist-info directories”

[Ben Finney]

Marius Gedminas <marius at gedmin.as> writes:

> On Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 07:13:49PM +1100, Ben Finney wrote:
> > Marius Gedminas <marius at gedmin.as> writes:
> > > What happens if you try to create the python3.5 virtualenv
> > > directly, outside tox?
> > 
> > What specific command should I use to test that?
>
> virtualenv -p python3.5 /tmp/py35

I get the same error:

=====
$ virtualenv -p python3.5 /tmp/py35
Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python3.5
Using base prefix '/usr'
New python executable in /tmp/py35/bin/python3.5
Also creating executable in /tmp/py35/bin/python
Please make sure you remove any previous custom paths from your /home/bignose/.pydistutils.cfg file.
Installing setuptools, pip...
  Complete output from command /tmp/py35/bin/python3.5 -c "import sys, pip; sys...d\"] + sys.argv[1:]))" setuptools pip:
  DEPRECATION: --no-install, --no-download, --build, and --no-clean are deprecated.  See https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/906.
Ignoring indexes: https://pypi.python.org/simple/
Downloading/unpacking setuptools
Downloading/unpacking pip
Installing collected packages: setuptools, pip
Cleaning up...
Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pip-1.5.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/basecommand.py", line 122, in main
    status = self.run(options, args)
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pip-1.5.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/commands/install.py", line 295, in run
    requirement_set.install(install_options, global_options, root=options.root_path)
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pip-1.5.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/req.py", line 1436, in install
    requirement.install(install_options, global_options, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pip-1.5.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/req.py", line 672, in install
    self.move_wheel_files(self.source_dir, root=root)
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pip-1.5.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/req.py", line 902, in move_wheel_files
    pycompile=self.pycompile,
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pip-1.5.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/wheel.py", line 214, in move_wheel_files
    clobber(source, lib_dir, True)
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/pip-1.5.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/wheel.py", line 192, in clobber
    assert not info_dir, 'Multiple .dist-info directories'
AssertionError: Multiple .dist-info directories

Storing debug log for failure in /home/bignose/.pip/pip.log
----------------------------------------
...Installing setuptools, pip...done.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 2378, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 830, in main
    symlink=options.symlink)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1032, in create_environment
    install_wheel(to_install, py_executable, search_dirs)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 975, in install_wheel
    'PIP_NO_INDEX': '1'
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 917, in call_subprocess
    % (cmd_desc, proc.returncode))
OSError: Command /tmp/py35/bin/python3.5 -c "import sys, pip; sys...d\"] + sys.argv[1:]))" setuptools pip failed with error code 2
=====

> > I'm keen to diagnose the packages as they exist on the operating
> > system, and not install from outside the package manager.
>
> And yet you're here, and not on bugs.debian.org ;-)

Until I know that I'm not simply making some newbie mistake, yes.

-- 
 \     “Buy not what you want, but what you need; what you do not need |
  `\           is expensive at a penny.” —Cato, 234–149 BCE, _Relique_ |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney