How to Install a Python Package .Whl File

Jinku Hu Feb 16, 2024
  1. Python Wheel File Type
  2. How to Install Python .Whl (Wheel) File
How to Install a Python Package .Whl File

The most popular way to install the new Python package or library is to use pip or easy_install as introduced in Python tutorial installation section.

But sometimes you couldn’t use these tools because of some restrictions like limited internet access. Here we will show you how to install a new Python package with a .whl file.

Python Wheel File Type

Python wheel file or in abbreviation .whl file is a specially formatted zip archive as a Python built-package. It contains all the installation files and could be installed by only unpacking the file.

How to Install Python .Whl (Wheel) File

  • Check pip is already installed

    If pip or pip.exe is not recognized, install it with the pip installation tutorial. Or you could check whether it is in the Python scripts directory, but the path of the script is not in the system variable. Then you could simply add the Python scripts path to the system variable PATH.

    set PATH=C:\Python\Scripts;%PATH%
    

    Here, C:\Python\Scripts should be updated to your own Python installation directory.

  • Download the .whl file

    You could download the unofficial windows binary for Python extension packages from this trustable UCI website https://www.cgohlke.com/#jpype.

  • Install .whl file

    For example, if you have downloaded pycairo-1.16.3-cp27-cp27m-win32.whl to the folder C:\Downloads\. Use the command below to install the whl package file.

    pip install C:\Downloads\pycairo-1.16.3-cp27-cp27m-win32.whl
    

    It’s done. Good luck!

Author: Jinku Hu
Jinku Hu avatar Jinku Hu avatar

Founder of DelftStack.com. Jinku has worked in the robotics and automotive industries for over 8 years. He sharpened his coding skills when he needed to do the automatic testing, data collection from remote servers and report creation from the endurance test. He is from an electrical/electronics engineering background but has expanded his interest to embedded electronics, embedded programming and front-/back-end programming.

LinkedIn Facebook

Related Article - Python Package