the same set of actions do work on my side
what you can do is remove SQLA by hand from
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/
to make sure it's really gone
you can also do on the prompt :
import sqlalchemy
print sqlalchemy.__file__
to see if it picks up the right file, and
then move further down the import process to
see what exactly is happening
if that doesn't work, maybe ask on the SQLA
mailing list
tw55413@alberobello:~$ sudo pip install -U sqlalchemy==0.7.8
Downloading/unpacking sqlalchemy==0.7.8
Downloading SQLAlchemy-0.7.8.tar.gz (2.6Mb): 2.6Mb downloaded
Running setup.py egg_info for package sqlalchemy
warning: no files found matching '*.jpg' under directory 'doc'
no previously-included directories found matching 'doc/build/output'
Installing collected packages: sqlalchemy
Found existing installation: SQLAlchemy 0.7.9
Uninstalling SQLAlchemy:
Successfully uninstalled SQLAlchemy
Running setup.py install for sqlalchemy
building 'sqlalchemy.cprocessors' extension
gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c lib/sqlalchemy/cextension/processors.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/lib/sqlalchemy/cextension/processors.o
gcc -pthread -shared -Wl,-O1 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/lib/sqlalchemy/cextension/processors.o -o build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/sqlalchemy/cprocessors.so
building 'sqlalchemy.cresultproxy' extension
gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c lib/sqlalchemy/cextension/resultproxy.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/lib/sqlalchemy/cextension/resultproxy.o
gcc -pthread -shared -Wl,-O1 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/lib/sqlalchemy/cextension/resultproxy.o -o build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/sqlalchemy/cresultproxy.so
warning: no files found matching '*.jpg' under directory 'doc'
no previously-included directories found matching 'doc/build/output'
Successfully installed sqlalchemy
Cleaning up...
tw55413@alberobello:~$ python
Python 2.7.3 (default, Sep 26 2012, 21:51:14)
[GCC 4.7.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import *
>>>