Some time ago, PEP 668[1] enabled distributions to mark the python installation as externally managed by a package manager, thus preventing pip from breaking the system by either installing packages to the system or locally in the home folder. Debian has already adopted this[2].
From my understanding, setting the flag EXTERNALLY-MANAGED only allows using pip inside of a virtualenv and bans using it anywhere else, unless the user uses the very self-explanatory flag --break-system-packages.
Currently on Arch, users can run either `sudo pip`, which will install packages as system and break pacman altogether, or `pip` which automatically uses the --user flag nowadays, which will still break things if done outside of virtual env. Quoting arojas[3], "There are hundreds of bug reports around caused by user installed pip packages overriding system ones" it seems like using the new EXTERNALLY-MANAGED mechanism would greatly reduce wasted time for both users and people managing the bug tracker. Is Arch going to be adopting this behavior too? I could not find a discussion anywhere else about this. Martin (C0rn3j) [1] https://peps.python.org/pep-0668/ [2] https://salsa.debian.org/python-team/packages/python-pip/-/blob/master/debia... [3] https://t.me/archlinuxgroup/662555