Boost Python Package Install Speed on Linux: Quick Guide to Changing pip Mirrors

Hello everyone, after covering pip source changes on Windows, this guide shows how to switch pip mirrors on Linux (Ubuntu 18.04) to speed up Python package installations.

The system uses Python 3.6.9 and pip 9.0.1, which is outdated, so first upgrade pip: sudo python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip Verify the upgrade with: pip -V The default pip source is the official PyPI server, which is often slow.

Common domestic mirrors include:

https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple/  (Tsinghua University)
http://mirrors.aliyun.com/pypi/simple/      (Aliyun)
https://pypi.mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/simple/   (University of Science and Technology of China)
http://pypi.douban.com/simple/            (Douban)

To change the source, run:

pip config set global.index-url https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple/

This writes the new mirror to pip's configuration ("writing" indicates success).

After switching, download speeds increase dramatically—from about 16 KB/s before to 500 KB/s–4.4 MB/s after the change.

Any yellow warnings simply indicate that an older pip was replaced by the newer version; the new pip now responds to the pip command.

Confirm the setup by opening a Python console and importing a package (e.g., import requests) without errors.

In summary, changing pip's source on Linux is straightforward, significantly speeds up package downloads, and requires only a few commands.