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Troubleshooting the jupyter command not found Error After Installing with pip

In this blog, if you’re a software engineer, you’re probably familiar with the Jupyter Notebook. It’s a widely used web-based open-source application enabling you to generate and distribute documents that incorporate live code, equations, visualizations, and explanatory text. Data scientists frequently leverage Jupyter Notebook for tasks like data cleaning, visualization, and model development.
By Saturn Cloud | | Miscellaneous | Updated:

As a software engineer, you’re likely no stranger to the Jupyter Notebook—a popular web-based open-source application that allows you to create and share documents containing live code, equations, visualizations, and narrative text. Jupyter Notebook is widely used by data scientists for various purposes, such as data cleaning, visualization, and model building.

After installing Jupyter Notebook using pip, you may have encountered the frustrating error message "jupyter: command not found" when trying to launch the application. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the possible causes of this issue and provide solutions to help you resolve it.

Table of Contents

  1. Possible Causes of "jupyter: command not found" Error
  2. Solutions to Resolve the Error
  3. Conclusion

Possible Causes of "jupyter: command not found" Error

There are several reasons why you might encounter the "jupyter: command not found" error:

  1. Jupyter is not installed: The most obvious reason is that Jupyter might not be installed on your system. To verify if this is the case, you can run the following command:
pip list

If Jupyter is not listed among the installed packages, you can install it by running:

pip install jupyter

  1. Python, pip, or Jupyter is installed with multiple versions or virtual environments: It’s possible that you have multiple installations of Python, pip, or Jupyter on your system, or that you’re using virtual environments. In such cases, the error might be caused by a misconfiguration or conflict between different installations.

  2. Jupyter is not in the system PATH: When you run the jupyter command, your system searches for the executable in the directories listed in the PATH environment variable. If Jupyter is installed but not in the PATH, you’ll receive the “command not found” error.

Solutions to Resolve the Error

Solution 1: Verify the Installation and Environment

First, ensure that Jupyter Notebook is indeed installed. You can do this by running the following command:

pip show jupyter

If Jupyter is installed, the command will display information about the package, including the version number and installation path. If not, you can install it using the pip install jupyter command mentioned earlier.

Next, check if you have multiple Python installations or are using virtual environments. You can verify the active Python version by running:

python --version

If you’re using virtual environments, activate the appropriate one and reinstall Jupyter Notebook within the environment:

source <virtualenv_path>/bin/activate
pip install jupyter

Solution 2: Locate the Jupyter Executable

If Jupyter is installed but not in the system PATH, you can find the Jupyter executable and add it to the PATH. First, locate the Jupyter executable with the following command:

pip show jupyter

Look for the “Location” field in the output, which indicates the installation path. The Jupyter executable should be in the bin subdirectory within that path. For example, if the “Location” is /Users/username/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages, the executable should be located in /Users/username/.local/bin/jupyter.

Solution 3: Update the System PATH

Once you’ve located the Jupyter executable, add its directory to the system PATH. The process for updating the PATH varies depending on your operating system.

Linux and macOS:

  1. Open a terminal and run the following command to open the .bashrc or .bash_profile file in a text editor:
nano ~/.bashrc

or

nano ~/.bash_profile
  1. Add the following line to the file, replacing <path_to_jupyter_executable> with the actual path:
export PATH=$PATH:<path_to_jupyter_executable>

  1. Save and close the file.

  2. Reload the .bashrc or .bash_profile file by running:

source ~/.bashrc

or

source ~/.bash_profile

Windows:

  1. Press Win+X and click System.

  2. Click Advanced system settings on the right side.

  3. Click the Environment Variables button.

  4. In the System variables section, find the Path variable and click Edit.

  5. Click New and add the path to the Jupyter executable.

  6. Click OK to save your changes.

After updating the PATH, open a new terminal and try running the [jupyter](https://saturncloud.io/glossary/Jupyter) command again.

Conclusion

The "jupyter: command not found" error can be a source of frustration, but with the solutions provided in this blog post, you’ll be able to resolve the issue and get back to using Jupyter Notebook for your data science projects. Remember to verify your installation and environment, locate the Jupyter executable, and update your system PATH as needed. Happy coding!

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