title: Unable to update pip3 even though I try to update it
body: <p>In summary, it seems I get into a loop where pip thinks I am using an outdated version of pip but when I try to upgrade it does <strong>NOT</strong> allow me. So I attempt an installation (from this question <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50914761/jupyter-notebook-cant-find-modules-for-python-3-6">Jupyter Notebook can&#39;t find modules for python 3.6</a>):</p>
  
  <pre><code>(automl) brandomiranda~ ❯ pip3 install ipykernel --upgrade
  python3 -m ipykernel install --user
  Requirement already up-to-date: ipykernel in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (5.1.3)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: jupyter-client in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipykernel) (5.3.4)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: traitlets&gt;=4.1.0 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipykernel) (4.3.3)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: appnope; platform_system == "Darwin" in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipykernel) (0.1.0)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: tornado&gt;=4.2 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipykernel) (6.0.3)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: ipython&gt;=5.0.0 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipykernel) (7.11.1)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: jupyter-core&gt;=4.6.0 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from jupyter-client-&gt;ipykernel) (4.6.1)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: pyzmq&gt;=13 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from jupyter-client-&gt;ipykernel) (18.1.1)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: python-dateutil&gt;=2.1 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from jupyter-client-&gt;ipykernel) (2.8.1)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: six in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from traitlets&gt;=4.1.0-&gt;ipykernel) (1.11.0)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: ipython-genutils in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from traitlets&gt;=4.1.0-&gt;ipykernel) (0.2.0)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: decorator in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from traitlets&gt;=4.1.0-&gt;ipykernel) (4.4.1)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: backcall in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipython&gt;=5.0.0-&gt;ipykernel) (0.1.0)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: pickleshare in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipython&gt;=5.0.0-&gt;ipykernel) (0.7.5)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: pexpect; sys_platform != "win32" in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipython&gt;=5.0.0-&gt;ipykernel) (4.7.0)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: prompt-toolkit!=3.0.0,!=3.0.1,&lt;3.1.0,&gt;=2.0.0 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipython&gt;=5.0.0-&gt;ipykernel) (3.0.2)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: jedi&gt;=0.10 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipython&gt;=5.0.0-&gt;ipykernel) (0.15.2)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: pygments in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipython&gt;=5.0.0-&gt;ipykernel) (2.5.2)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: setuptools&gt;=18.5 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from ipython&gt;=5.0.0-&gt;ipykernel) (39.0.1)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: ptyprocess&gt;=0.5 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from pexpect; sys_platform != "win32"-&gt;ipython&gt;=5.0.0-&gt;ipykernel) (0.6.0)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: wcwidth in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from prompt-toolkit!=3.0.0,!=3.0.1,&lt;3.1.0,&gt;=2.0.0-&gt;ipython&gt;=5.0.0-&gt;ipykernel) (0.1.8)
  Requirement not upgraded as not directly required: parso&gt;=0.5.2 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from jedi&gt;=0.10-&gt;ipython&gt;=5.0.0-&gt;ipykernel) (0.5.2)
  You are using pip version 10.0.1, however version 19.3.1 is available.
  You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.
  Installed kernelspec python3 in /Users/brandomiranda/Library/Jupyter/kernels/python3
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>ok fine, I will upgrade but then it thinks its already upgraded:</p>
  
  <pre><code>(automl) brandomiranda~ ❯ pip install --upgrade pip
  Requirement already up-to-date: pip in ./miniconda3/envs/automl/lib/python3.7/site-packages (19.3.1)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but when I try the installation again it fails with the same message. It seems like a chicken and egg problem. Anyone know what's going on?</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>Outdated:</p>
  
  <p>I recently did a <code>pip3 list</code> to check what modules/projects I had installed in my virtual environment and I got a suggestion to upgrade pip. I tried but I can't seem to make it update/upgrade. I did:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ pip3 list
  namespaces (4.2.0)
  pip (8.0.2)
  scikit-learn (0.18.1)
  setuptools (19.4)
  six (1.10.0)
  wheel (0.26.0)
  You are using pip version 8.0.2, however version 9.0.1 is available.
  You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>so I tried doing that and it said it was working:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ pip install --upgrade pip
  Requirement already up-to-date: pip in /Users/user/home_simulation_research/hbf_tensorflow_code/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>since it said its alread there I did pip3 list again and it kept saying I didn't actually have it upgraded. Since updating with the standard pip command didn't work I instead tried using <code>pip3</code> to do the update but it still didn't work:</p>
  
  <pre><code>pip3 install --upgrade pip3
  Collecting pip3
    Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement pip3 (from versions: )
  No matching distribution found for pip3
  You are using pip version 8.0.2, however version 9.0.1 is available.
  You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Why doesn't it work?</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>Just when I thought it didn't work I tried using pip3 to upgrade pip and pip3 to upgrade pip3. For some reason the later doesn't seem to work but the first one does. i.e. doing:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ pip3 install --upgrade pip
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>worked (or at least <code>pip3 list</code>) stopped requesting me upgrade. Why is that? Is it just me or is this really strange behaviour? </p>