How to solve the pip and ssl version problem when install Pillow on MacOS

Apr 22, 2018

This article shows how to solve the pip and ssl version problem when install Pillow:

1. The environment

Python 2.7.10
OS: Mac OS 10.12.4

2. The problem

➜  bswen: pip install pillow
Collecting pillow
  Could not fetch URL https://pypi.python.org/simple/pillow/: There was a problem confirming the ssl certificate: [SSL: TLSV1_ALERT_PROTOCOL_VERSION] tlsv1 alert protocol version (_ssl.c:590) - skipping
  Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement pillow (from versions: )
No matching distribution found for pillow

3. The reason

After google, I found the reason is:

The ssl support is deprecated in the pip(version 9.*),you should upgrade to pip 10

3. Solve the problem

So I installed pyenv like this:

➜  bswen: brew install pyenv

And Then add this script to ~/.zshrc

eval "$(pyenv init -)"

And then quit the terminal and install the new python version:3.6.5

➜  bswen: pyenv install 3.6.5

And then set the local version to 3.6.5

➜  bswen: pyenv local 3.6.5

Verify the version:

➜  bswen: python --version
Python 3.6.5

Upgrade to pip 10:

➜  bswen: pip install --upgrade pip

At last, we install the Pillow like this:

➜  bswen: pip install Pillow

Verify the pillow installation:

➜  bswen: python
Python 3.6.5 (default, Apr 22 2018, 14:43:19)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 8.0 (clang-800)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import PIL
>>>

The pillow is installed successfully.

You can find detail documents about the python pip here:

python pip