pypa/pip · error · InstallationError

You must give at least one requirement to

Error message

You must give at least one requirement to {self.name} (see "pip help {self.name}")

What it means

Raised by the uninstall command after all positional arguments and -r requirement files have been parsed, if reqs_to_uninstall is empty. This means pip was asked to uninstall nothing — either no args were given, every arg failed to parse into a named requirement, or all requirement files were empty.

Solutions

1. Provide at least one package name: `pip uninstall <package>`.
2. If using -r, ensure the requirements file is non-empty and contains valid package specifiers.
3. Use `pip uninstall -y <package>` to avoid the confirmation prompt when scripting.
4. If building the arg list dynamically, check it is non-empty before calling pip.

Example fix

# before
pip uninstall
# after
pip uninstall -y requests

def run_pip_uninstall(packages: list[str]) -> list[str]:
    if not packages:
        raise ValueError('pip uninstall requires at least one package name')
    return ['pip', 'uninstall', '-y', *packages]

When it happens

Trigger: Running `pip uninstall` with no arguments; passing requirement names that all fail to parse into a valid InstallRequirement.name (e.g. bare URLs with no project name); passing -r with an empty file or a file whose entries are all filtered out.

Common situations: Typing `pip uninstall` without a package name; scripts that pass an empty list or empty requirements file; passing a requirements.txt that contains only comments or invalid lines.

Related errors

• Missing required argument (search query).
• Key does not contain dot separated section and key. Perhaps…
• List format 'freeze' cannot be used with the --outdated…
• Needed a specific file to be modifying.
• Options --outdated and --uptodate cannot be combined.

AI-assisted analysis of pypa/pip@f399c37189 (2026-08-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ad590039ed754080. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/pip/_internal/commands/uninstall.py:92

                reqs_to_uninstall[canonicalize_name(req.name)] = req
            else:
                logger.warning(
                    "Invalid requirement: %r ignored -"
                    " the uninstall command expects named"
                    " requirements.",
                    name,
                )
        for filename in options.requirements:
            for parsed_req in parse_requirements(
                filename, options=options, session=session
            ):
                req = install_req_from_parsed_requirement(
                    parsed_req, isolated=options.isolated_mode
                )
                if req.name:
                    reqs_to_uninstall[canonicalize_name(req.name)] = req
        if not reqs_to_uninstall:
            raise InstallationError(
                f"You must give at least one requirement to {self.name} (see "
                f'"pip help {self.name}")'
            )

        if not options.override_externally_managed:
            check_externally_managed()

        protect_pip_from_modification_on_windows(
            modifying_pip="pip" in reqs_to_uninstall
        )

        for req in reqs_to_uninstall.values():
            uninstall_pathset = req.uninstall(
                auto_confirm=options.yes,
                verbose=self.verbosity > 0,
            )
            if uninstall_pathset:
                uninstall_pathset.commit()

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