Install pipenv with Homebrew, apt, MacPorts, Nix

Project links

• Homepage
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• pipenv
• pipenv-resolver

Project history

Kenneth Reitz founded Pipenv as a unified Python application workflow and the project was later maintained under PyPA.

Its core model combines automatic virtual-environment management with `Pipfile` requirements and a `Pipfile.lock` containing fully resolved dependencies and hashes. The project also developed support for dependency groups, private indexes, scripts, environment-variable loading, and deployment checks.

Adoption history

Pipenv became prominent during the 2017–2018 Python packaging cycle and moved under the Python Packaging Authority, making it a highly visible application-dependency workflow.

The supplied metadata records packages in Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, MacPorts, and Nix. Official installation guidance also documents pip, pipx, and operating-system package-manager installation.

How it is used

Run `pipenv install` in a project to create or update its environment, `Pipfile`, and lock file; use `pipenv run` or `pipenv shell` to execute inside the environment.

Use `pipenv sync` for an exact lock-file installation and deployment checks when reproducibility matters.

Credentials for private indexes can be supplied through environment-variable expansion or a supported system keyring; the official guidance discourages hard-coding secrets in project files.

Why package nerds care

Pipenv popularized the pairing of a human-edited dependency manifest with a deterministic, hash-bearing lock file in Python application workflows.

It is historically important as an attempt to unify several familiar Python tools and practices—pip, virtualenv, dependency locking, environment activation, and dotenv loading—behind one project-oriented command line.

Timeline

• 2017: Pipenv emerged as a unified Python application dependency workflow.
• 2018: The project was operating under the Python Packaging Authority and had become a prominent packaging tool.
• Later development: Pipenv expanded deployment, security, private-index, dependency-group, and cross-platform workflows.

Related projects

• Pipenv builds on the roles traditionally filled by pip and virtualenv. Poetry overlaps as a dependency manager but additionally targets library building and publishing, while pipx is commonly used to install Pipenv itself in an isolated environment.

Sources

• https://github.com/pypa/pipenv
• https://pipenv.pypa.io/en/stable/
• https://pipenv.pypa.io/en/stable/faq.html
• https://pipenv.pypa.io/en/stable/installation.html
• source_facts.package-manager