How to access PIP -e svn+ specific revision eggs via normal import

PIP lets you install specific revisions from SVN if you use the -e flag.

pip install -E env -e svn+http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/trunk/@16406#egg=django

The problem is that unlike installing without the -e flag, it installs the source files in /YOURENV/src/HERE/, meaning if you’re simply adding your virtualenv’s site-packages to your python path, python won’t find these modules.

I found the answer here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1875037/pip-wsgi-import-errors

The solution

Use the python site module and addsitedir function which automatically searches *.pth files in the directory and includes those paths.

import site
site.addsitedir('path/to/my/site-packages/')

import django
# success