title: upgrade pip without root access
body: <p>I am trying to use pip 8 in a super computer where I don't have root access. After downloading pip from:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/" rel="nofollow">https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/</a></p>
  
  <p>I do:</p>
  
  <pre><code>myname@edison04:~/software/pip&gt; python get-pip.py --prefix=~/local_python_lib/
  Collecting pip
    Using cached pip-8.0.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl
  Collecting wheel
    Using cached wheel-0.29.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl
  Installing collected packages: pip, wheel
    Found existing installation: pip 1.5.4
      Uninstalling pip-1.5.4:
  Exception:
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/tmp/tmplu5E1W/pip.zip/pip/basecommand.py", line 209, in main
      status = self.run(options, args)
    File "/tmp/tmplu5E1W/pip.zip/pip/commands/install.py", line 317, in run
      prefix=options.prefix_path,
    File "/tmp/tmplu5E1W/pip.zip/pip/req/req_set.py", line 725, in install
      requirement.uninstall(auto_confirm=True)
    File "/tmp/tmplu5E1W/pip.zip/pip/req/req_install.py", line 752, in uninstall
      paths_to_remove.remove(auto_confirm)
    File "/tmp/tmplu5E1W/pip.zip/pip/req/req_uninstall.py", line 115, in remove
      renames(path, new_path)
    File "/tmp/tmplu5E1W/pip.zip/pip/utils/__init__.py", line 266, in renames
      shutil.move(old, new)
    File "/usr/common/usg/python/2.7.9/lib/python2.7/shutil.py", line 300, in move
      rmtree(src)
    File "/usr/common/usg/python/2.7.9/lib/python2.7/shutil.py", line 247, in rmtree
      rmtree(fullname, ignore_errors, onerror)
    File "/usr/common/usg/python/2.7.9/lib/python2.7/shutil.py", line 252, in rmtree
      onerror(os.remove, fullname, sys.exc_info())
    File "/usr/common/usg/python/2.7.9/lib/python2.7/shutil.py", line 250, in rmtree
      os.remove(fullname)
  OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/global/common/edison/usg/python/2.7.5/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.4-py2.7.egg/pip/__init__.py'
  You are using pip version 1.5.4, however version 8.0.3 is available.
  You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It tries to remove the already existing pip which I don't want to (and I don't have permissions to).... May I ask what can i do? Thank you.</p>
  
  <p>A few more updates: adding --user does not help:</p>
  
  <pre><code>myname@edison04:~/software/pip&gt; python get-pip.py --prefix=~/local_python_lib/ --user
  ERROR: Can not combine '--user' and '--prefix' as they imply different installation locations
  You are using pip version 1.5.4, however version 8.0.3 is available.
  You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.
  
  myname@edison04:~/software/pip&gt; python get-pip.py  --user
  Collecting pip
    Using cached pip-8.0.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl
  Installing collected packages: pip
  Successfully installed pip-1.5.4
  You are using pip version 1.5.4, however version 8.0.3 is available.
  You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This installs pip-1.5.4 on some location, however I want to use pip 8.0.3 instead... Further more, when i locate the installed pip, and try to check their version... I think it just links my local bin to the pip 1.5.4 global bin</p>
  
  <pre><code>key01027@edison04:~&gt; find . -name "pip"
  ./software/pip
  ./local_python_lib/pip
  ./.local/bin/pip
  ./.local/edison/2.7.9/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip
  ./.local/edison/2.7.9/bin/pip
  ./.cache/pip
  key01027@edison04:~&gt; cd .local/
  key01027@edison04:~/.local&gt; cd bin/
  key01027@edison04:~/.local/bin&gt; ls
  pip  pip2  pip2.7
  key01027@edison04:~/.local/bin&gt; ./pip --version
  pip 1.5.4 from /global/common/edison/usg/python/2.7.5/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.4-py2.7.egg (python 2.7)
  key01027@edison04:~/.local/bin&gt; ./pip2 --version
  pip 1.5.4 from /global/common/edison/usg/python/2.7.5/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.4-py2.7.egg (python 2.7)
  key01027@edison04:~/.local/bin&gt; ./pip2.7 --version
  pip 1.5.4 from /global/common/edison/usg/python/2.7.5/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.4-py2.7.egg (python 2.7)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What could I do? Thank you</p>
  
  <p>further, using virtual env also does not solve this problem:</p>
  
  <p>After set up the virtualenv, it also does not help...</p>
  
  <pre><code>(dev)key01027@edison08:~/software&gt; which pip 
  /global/homes/k/key01027/dev/bin/pip 
  (dev)key01027@edison08:~/software&gt; pip install --upgrade pip 
  Cannot fetch index base URL https://pypi.python.org/simple/ 
  Could not find any downloads that satisfy the requirement pip in /global/common/edison/usg/python/2.7.5/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.4-py2.7.egg 
  Downloading/unpacking pip 
  Cleaning up... 
  No distributions at all found for pip in /global/common/edison/usg/python/2.7.5/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.4-py2.7.egg 
  Storing debug log for failure in /global/homes/k/key01027/.pip/pip.log 
  </code></pre>