How to Remove Pip Packages with Leading Dashes?

Pip Package Removal: Addressing Incorrectly Installed Packages with Leading Dashes

After executing pip freeze, you may encounter a warning regarding an unparsable requirement with a leading dash, such as "-atplotlib." Subsequent verification via pip list confirms that this item is erroneously recognized as a package.

Efforts to uninstall the package using pip uninstall -atplotlib result in an error due to the leading dash being perceived as an invalid option.

To resolve this issue, it is safe and sufficient to manually locate and delete the corresponding folders from the site-packages directory. In the case of -atplotlib, these folders may reside at:

• C:UsersnameAnaconda3Libsite-packages~atplotlib
• C:UsersnameAnaconda3Libsite-packages~atplotlib-3.0.3-py3.7.egg-info

These folders contain the remnants of the incorrectly installed package. Their deletion will not adversely affect other packages or system functionality.

This behavior stems from pip's recent optimization of its uninstallation process. Instead of copying package content to a temporary location and then deleting it, it now renames the package's folder to a non-importable name. Should the uninstallation fail for any reason, the folder is renamed back to its original state.

In the case of -atplotlib, the uninstallation appears to have failed, leaving behind the unwanted folders. However, these folders are benign and can be safely deleted without consequence.

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