can't find anyone posting a similar situation so thought I'd ask and see.  Currently trying to automate unit tests within our continuous deployment environment.  
We do the typical python setup.py test command from our virtualenv. However, we have our own internal pypi server for some of our internal libraries.  pip.conf is configured so when explicitly running pip install it will check the internal pypi server.  But when running setup.py test, it tries to use pip to install requirements and appears to not be aware of the pip.conf file.  I've place the pip.conf at the global level (/etc/pip.config), virtualenv level, and the user level but to no avail.  It's almost like it's calling a different pip, which I would assume would be the base install (not virtualenv), but it ignores the global pip.conf also.  Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
Any time I have problems like this, I find that writing the explicit path to the executable helps a great deal, no matter the level I place the executable. So instead of running pip ~do something~ try /etc/pip ~do something~.
running python setup.py test pip not finding pip.conf to install internal requirements