Difference between a Python 'egg' and 'wheel'

Question

I was installing pandas on my machine and came across this error:

Running setup.py (path:/tmp/pip-build-WzvvgM/pandas/setup.py) egg_info for package pandas

Cleaning up... Command python setup.py egg_info failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip-build-WzvvgM/pandas Storing debug log for failure in /home/user508/.pip/pip.log

Should I use a wheel file for pandas? What is the difference between a Python 'wheel' and 'egg'?

From Python Packaging User Guide, I could understand that both are an archive format used for installing Python packages, (or libraries), but the 'wheel' format has one very significant difference from the 'egg' format. From the user prospective, wheels can include C and other extensions without having the developer tools, (compiler, etc.), installed.

Why are both used for installing Python packages?

Answer 1

We need more information. What version of python are you trying to install? My understanding is egg was used for Python 2. 'wheel' has several advantages over egg and should be used moving forward.

How are you trying to install Pandas?

I would recommend installing pandas with anaconda. https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/getting_started/install.html