On Mon, 2026-07-13 at 20:32 -0400, David Niklas wrote: > On Mon, 13 Jul 2026 22:45:33 +0200 > Jan Claeys <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Fri, 2026-07-10 at 13:48 -0400, David Niklas wrote: > > > I wanted to install a python pip wheel file globally without > > > breaking my system packages. I tried searching online, but I > > > cannot figure out how to do that. > > > > > > How do you install a .whl file globally in debian without > > > breaking system packages? > > > > Is it something that is also packaged in Debian? > > It's the VapourSynth package. And it's not in Debian -- though I > could get it through the multimedia repo.
In that case you are not going to break anything (except maybe other packages from the multimedia repo if you use those and if they depend on a different version of it). > > Why do you think it will break system packages? > Because I get this big wall of scary text saying so... I suppose it’s written to sound scary because people did break their system in the past. The problems happen when you install newer versions of Python packages/modules/wheels/etc. that applications depend on, where the newer version does not have the same API, or where it behaves differently. It’s especially problematic when it’s a system utility written in Python that breaks that way. > […] You can override this, at > the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing > --break-system-packages. hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed > specification. It says here how to override the scary warning. Of course, if you don’t need the wheel installed globally then a virtual environment as others suggested might be possible too. -- Jan Claeys (please don't CC me when replying to the list)
