Python/Virtual environment
virtualenv is a tool used to create an isolated workspace for a Python application. It has various advantages such as the ability to install modules locally, export a working environment, and execute a Python program in that environment.
Overview
A virtual environment is a directory into which some binaries and shell scripts are installed. The binaries include python for executing scripts and pip for installing other modules within the environment. There are also shell scripts (one for bash, csh, and fish) to activate the environment. Essentially, a virtual environment mimics a full system install of Python and all of the desired modules without interfering with any system on which the application might run.
In 2017, Pipenv was published which manages all the above tools - managing virtual environments of python interpreters, package dependencies, their activation and reproducible locking of versions in Pipfiles.
Installation
Python 3.3+ comes with a module called venv. For applications that require an older version of Python, virtualenv must be used.
Packages
Install one of these packages from the official repositories to use a Python virtual environment.
- Python 3.3+: python
- Python 3: python-virtualenv
For Pipenv:
- Python 3: python-pipenv
Usage
All three tools use a similar workflow.
Creation
Use venv or virtualenv to create the virtual environment within your project directory. Be sure to exclude the venv directory from version control--a copy of pip freeze will be enough to rebuild it.
venv
This tool is provided by python (3.3+):
$ python -m venv envname
virtualenv
Use virtualenv for Python 3, available in python-virtualenv.
$ virtualenv envname
Activation
Use one of the provided shell scripts to activate and deactivate the environment. This example assumes bash is used.
$ source envname/bin/activate (envname) $
Once inside the virtual environment, modules can be installed with pip and scripts can be run as normal.
To exit the virtual environment, run the function provided by bin/activate:
(envname) $ deactivate
Python versions
The binary versions depend on which virtual environment tool was used. For instance, the python command used in the Python 2 example points to bin/python2.7, while the one in the venv example points to bin/python3.7.
One major difference between venv and virtualenv is that the former uses the system's Python binary by default:
$ ls -l venv/bin/python3.7 lrwxrwxrwx 1 foo foo 7 Jun 3 19:57 venv/bin/python3.7 -> /usr/bin/python3
The virtualenv tool uses a separate Python binary in the environment directory:
$ ls -l virtualenv/bin/python3.7 lrwxrwxrwx 1 foo foo 7 Jun 3 19:58 virtualenv/bin/python3.7 -> python3
virtualenvwrapper
virtualenvwrapper allows more natural command line interaction with your virtual environments by exposing several useful commands to create, activate and remove virtual environments. This package is a wrapper for python-virtualenv.
Installation
Install the python-virtualenvwrapper package from the official repositories.
Now add the following lines to your ~/.bashrc:
export WORKON_HOME=~/.virtualenvs source /usr/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh
The line source /usr/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh can cause some slowdown when starting a new shell. To fix this try using source /usr/bin/virtualenvwrapper_lazy.sh, which will load virtualenvwrapper the first time a virtualenvwrapper function is called.
Re-open your console and create the WORKON_HOME folder:
$ mkdir $WORKON_HOME
Basic usage
See https://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ for usage (and extension capability).
Create the virtual environment:
$ mkvirtualenv -p /usr/bin/python2.7 my_env
Activate the virtual environment:
$ workon my_env
Install some package inside the virtual environment (say, Django):
(my_env) $ pip install django
After you have done your things, leave the virtual environment:
(my_env) $ deactivate
Pipenv
pipenv allows better managed CLI interactions by providing a single program that does all the functions of the above tools.
Installation
Install the python-pipenv package from the official repositories.
Basic usage
All commands can be executed in the project folder, and pipenv will recognize the specific situation - whether a virtualenv exists in the directory, locating it, and running on the specific virtual interpreter when pipenv is executed.
More information at [1], [2], [3].