Global Tools

With pixi global, users can manage globally installed tools in a way that makes them available from any directory. This means that the Pixi environment will be placed in a global location, and the tools will be exposed to the system PATH, allowing you to run them from the command line. Some packages, especially those with graphical user interfaces, will also add start menu entries.

Basic Usage

Running the following command installs rattler-build on your system.

pixi global install rattler-build

What's great about pixi global is that, by default, it isolates each package in its own environment, exposing only the necessary entry points. This means you don't have to worry about removing a package and accidentally breaking seemingly unrelated packages. This behavior is quite similar to that of pipx.

However, there are times when you may want multiple dependencies in the same environment. For instance, while ipython is really useful on its own, it becomes much more useful when numpy and matplotlib are available when using it.

Let's execute the following command:

pixi global install ipython --with numpy --with matplotlib

numpy exposes executables, but since it's added via --with it's executables are not being exposed.

Importing numpy and matplotlib now works as expected.

ipython -c 'import numpy; import matplotlib'

At some point, you might want to install multiple versions of the same package on your system. Since they will be all available on the system PATH, they need to be exposed under different names.

Let's check out the following command:

pixi global install --expose py3=python "python=3.12"

By specifying --expose we specified that we want to expose the executable python under the name py3. The package python has more executables, but since we specified --exposed they are not auto-exposed.

You can run py3 to start the python interpreter.

py3 -c "print('Hello World')"

Shell Completions

When you work in a terminal, you are using a shell and shells can process completions of command line tools. The process works like this: you type "git -" in your terminal and press <TAB>. Then, your shell will present you all the flags git offers. However, that only works if you have the completions installed for the tool in question. If the tool you installed via pixi global contains completions they will be automatically installed. At the moment, only Linux and macOS are supported.

First install a tool with pixi global:

pixi global install git

The completions can be found under $PIXI_HOME/completions.

You can then load the completions in the startup script of your shell:

~/.bashrc

# bash, default on most Linux distributions
source ~/.pixi/completions/bash/*

~/.zshrc

# zsh, default on macOS
fpath+=(~/.pixi/completions/zsh)
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

~/.config/fish/config.fish

# fish
for file in ~/.pixi/completions/fish/*
    source $file
end

Note

Completions of packages are installed as long as their binaries are exposed under the same name: e.g. exposed = { git = "git" }.

Adding a Series of Tools at Once

Without specifying an environment, you can add multiple tools at once:

pixi global install pixi-pack rattler-build

This command generates the following entry in the manifest:

[envs.pixi-pack]
channels = ["conda-forge"]
dependencies= { pixi-pack = "*" }
exposed = { pixi-pack = "pixi-pack" }

[envs.rattler-build]
channels = ["conda-forge"]
dependencies = { rattler-build = "*" }
exposed = { rattler-build = "rattler-build" }

Creating two separate non-interfering environments, while exposing only the minimum required binaries.

Creating a Data Science Sandbox Environment

You can create an environment with multiple tools using the following command:

pixi global install --environment data-science --expose jupyter --expose ipython jupyter numpy pandas matplotlib ipython

This command generates the following entry in the manifest:

[envs.data-science]
channels = ["conda-forge"]
dependencies = { jupyter = "*", ipython = "*" }
exposed = { jupyter = "jupyter", ipython = "ipython" }

In this setup, both jupyter and ipython are exposed from the data-science environment, allowing you to run:

> ipython
# Or
> jupyter lab

These commands will be available globally, making it easy to access your preferred tools without switching environments.

Install Packages For a Different Platform

You can install packages for a different platform using the --platform flag. This is useful when you want to install packages for a different platform, such as osx-64 packages on osx-arm64. For example, running this on osx-arm64:

pixi global install --platform osx-64 python

will create the following entry in the manifest:

[envs.python]
channels = ["conda-forge"]
platforms = ["osx-64"]
dependencies = { python = "*" }
# ...