Repository navigation
PIP_ROOT_USER_ACTION=ignore ignored: pip still issues error messages about running it as root #930
Description
Activity
Additional note: also tried with setup-python@v4 and specific python versions 3.11.9 and 3.11.8.
Hello @RoFz 👋,
Thank you for reporting this issue. We will investigate it and get back to you as soon as we have some feedback.Hello @RoFz 👋,
Thankyou for reporting the issue!
The warning about the pip cache within Docker containers arises because the directory/github/home/.cache/pipis either not owned by or not writable by the current user. The ownership and permissions might not align with the user running the pip command.
To resolve this issue, please try the following step before the setup-python action:-name: Change ownership of /github/home run: sudo chown -R $(whoami) /github/home
Regarding the warning related to running pip as root: The
setup-pythonaction correctly sets thePIP_ROOT_USER_ACTION=ignoreenvironment variable. This setting works as expected for more recent pip versions (23.0.1 and above).
Therefore, this is expected behaviour and is not related to thesetup-pythonaction.
Hope this clarifies the situation.@priya-kinthali the
PIP_ROOT_USER_ACTIONhas no effect for the calledensurepipcommand which is printing this respective warning. Reason seems that this module is sanitising the environment context, see: https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Lib/ensurepip/__init__.py#L97-L106.Reacted by Mohamed Mihoubi and Zach VickeryHello @RoFz 👋,
I hope the suggested workaround has addressed the issue related to the pip cache warning.Thank you, @maikelvdh, for your valuable insights regarding the pip cache warning 😊. As you correctly pointed out, the warning from the
ensurepipcommand is due to the environment context being sanitized.PIP_ROOT_USER_ACTION has no effect for the called ensurepip command which is printing this respective warning.
Additionally, the PIP_ROOT_USER_ACTION=ignore variable is correctly set and functions as expected for pip versions >=23.0.2 in the
setup-pythonaction.
Since this behaviour is inherent topipand not specifically related to thesetup-pythonaction, I am proceeding to close this issue. Please feel free to reopen this issue or create a new one incase of any further concerns.Thank you for your patience! 😊
- added a commit that references this issue
on Feb 12, 2026 - added a commit that references this issue
on May 21, 2026
Description:
setup-action@v5 and python-version: 3.11 leads to pip's warnings about running as root, which should have been suppressed by the install script on self-hosted runner and GHES 3.12.8.
Action version:
@v5
Platform:
Runner type:
Tools version:
python 3.11 (3.11.9)
Repro steps:
Expected behavior:
No warnings, since the the install script seems to properly export PIP_ROOT_USER_ACTION=ignore.
Actual behavior:
pip throws the known errors (warnings?) about running it as root:
This is related to #513, which, although initially opened as a feature request and closed as such, is still receiving updates from people impacted by the same problem.