How to automatically set --break-system-packages in pip

Problem

When you install Python packages with pip, on newer version of Debian or Ubuntu, you will see the following warning:

error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install
    python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
    install.
    
    If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package,
    create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
    Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make
    sure you have python3-full installed.
    
    If you wish to install a non-Debian packaged Python application,
    it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a
    virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.
    
    See /usr/share/doc/python3.12/README.venv for more information.

note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python installation or OS distribution provider. You can override this, at the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing --break-system-packages.
hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed specification.

Solution

You could do it the right way (use pipx or similar tools), but since you’re reading this post, I assume you just want to get rid of the warning without specifying --break-system-packages every time you summon pip.

To achieve this, run the following shell script as the user you’re running pip as:

mkdir -p ~/.config/pip
echo "[global]" >> ~/.config/pip/pip.conf
echo "break-system-packages = true" >> ~/.config/pip/pip.conf

After that, pip will automatically use --break-system-packages every time you run it. That is, it will behave as you expected.