Python Virtual Environments

I’m using virtualenvwrapper to help manage my virtual environments in python.

The main reasons I’m using virtualenvwrapper is because of the following features:

1. Organize all of your virtual environments in one place.
2. Has wrappers for managing your virtual environments (create, delete, copy).
3. Use a single command to switch between environments.

Installation

Run the following commands to install and initialize virtualenvwrapper.

pip install virtualenvwrapper
export WORKON_HOME=~/.virtualenvs
mkdir -p $WORKON_HOME
source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

Add the following to your .bashrc.

export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/.virtualenvs
source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

Basic Commands

virtualenvwrapper

Print a list of commands and their descriptions as basic help output.

Syntax:

virtualenvwrapper

mkvirtualenv

Create a new environment, in the WORKON_HOME.

Syntax:

mkvirtualenv [-a project_path] [-i package] [-r requirements_file] [virtualenv options] ENVNAME

workon

List or change working virtual environments.

Syntax:

workon [environment_name]

deactivate

Switch from a virtual environment to the system-installed version of Python.

deactivate

Other Commands

Create requirements.txt

Navigate to virtual directory and output installed packages in requirements format.

cd $VIRTUAL_ENV
pip freeze > requirements.txt

See also

https://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html