virtualenvwrapper and Python 3

Question

I installed python 3.3.1 on ubuntu lucid and successfully created a virtualenv as below

virtualenv envpy331 --python=/usr/local/bin/python3.3

this created a folder envpy331 on my home dir.

I also have virtualenvwrapper installed.But in the docs only 2.4-2.7 versions of python are supported..Has anyone tried to organize the python3 virtualenv ? If so, can you tell me how ?

The problem with that is that pip is still the python2 pip, isn't it? I think what you want is virtualenvwrapper to use pyvenv instead of virtualenv — erikbstack
– erikbstack, Commented May 27, 2015 at 12:53

rattray · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-17 14:21:10Z

253

If you already have python3 installed as well virtualenvwrapper the only thing you would need to do to use python3 with the virtual environment is creating an environment using:

which python3 #Output: /usr/bin/python3
mkvirtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python3 nameOfEnvironment

Or, (at least on OSX using brew):

mkvirtualenv --python=`which python3` nameOfEnvironment

Start using the environment and you'll see that as soon as you type python you'll start using python3

edited May 17, 2015 at 14:21

rattray

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answered Jun 9, 2014 at 11:25

Jonathan

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8 Comments

Chris Doggett Over a year ago

Didn't quite work for me on OSX with 2.7.8 and 3.4.1 installed side-by-side via brew. Modifying it to "mkvirtualenv --python=`which python3` nameOfEnvironment" worked perfectly, though.

z0r Over a year ago

@ChrisDoggett same on Ubuntu 14.10.

Vasiliy Toporov Over a year ago

On Ubuntu the command will be: mkvirtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python3 your-env-name

d4nyll Over a year ago

If you use bash, you can do substitution to save a line - mkvirtualenv --python=$(which python3) nameOfEnvironment

rjmoggach Over a year ago

what's really great is to create the following bash alias alias mkvirtualenv3="mkvirtualenv --python=$(which python3.6)" - then it's easy to create virtualenvs for python 2 or 3

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Iliyan Bobev · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-23 15:45:31Z

54

You can make virtualenvwrapper use a custom Python binary instead of the one virtualenvwrapper is run with. To do that you need to use VIRTUALENV_PYTHON variable which is utilized by virtualenv:

$ export VIRTUALENV_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3
$ mkvirtualenv -a myproject myenv
Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python3
New python executable in myenv/bin/python3
Also creating executable in myenv/bin/python
(myenv)$ python
Python 3.2.3 (default, Oct 19 2012, 19:53:16) 
[GCC 4.7.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

answered Aug 23, 2013 at 15:45

Iliyan Bobev

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3 Comments

AlexLordThorsen Over a year ago

This is effectively out of date. Rather than setting an environment variable you should use the --python parameter that is currently suggested by Jonathan.

Joost Over a year ago

@Rawrgulmuffins Why? This prevents having to specify the python version for each new env.

AlexLordThorsen Over a year ago

@Joost That's a fair point. I personally feel like that's a downside but I can see why people would prefer that.

unutbu · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-20 18:12:00Z

27

The latest version of virtualenvwrapper is tested under Python3.2. Chances are good it will work with Python3.3 too.

answered Apr 20, 2013 at 18:12

unutbu

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Comments

akashbw · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-05 18:30:31Z

23

On Ubuntu; using mkvirtualenv -p python3 env_name loads the virtualenv with python3.

Inside the env, use python --version to verify.

edited Feb 5, 2018 at 18:30

answered May 23, 2017 at 8:40

akashbw

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1 Comment

Dos Over a year ago

python --version to display the version

Peter Yin · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-06 22:33:25Z

22

virtualenvwrapper now lets you specify the python executable without the path.

So (on OSX at least)mkvirtualenv --python=python3 nameOfEnvironment will suffice.

edited Jun 6, 2017 at 22:33

answered Dec 6, 2016 at 7:37

Peter Yin

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1 Comment

jwogrady Over a year ago

Needs an two dashes. Would edit, but SE requires 6 characters and the change only needs one.

dstandish · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-19 06:12:46Z

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You can add this to your .bash_profile or similar:

alias mkvirtualenv3='mkvirtualenv --python=`which python3`'

Then use mkvirtualenv3 instead of mkvirtualenv when you want to create a python 3 environment.

edited Apr 19, 2018 at 6:12

answered Jan 17, 2018 at 4:16

dstandish

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Comments

CuriousGeorge · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-14 19:49:20Z

13

I find that running

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3

and

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_VIRTUALENV=/usr/bin/virtualenv-3.4

in the command line on Ubuntu forces mkvirtualenv to use python3 and virtualenv-3.4. One still has to do

mkvirtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python3 nameOfEnvironment

to create the environment. This is assuming that you have python3 in /usr/bin/python3 and virtualenv-3.4 in /usr/local/bin/virtualenv-3.4.

edited Apr 14, 2015 at 19:49

answered Apr 14, 2015 at 10:16

CuriousGeorge

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1 Comment

Santhosh Over a year ago

Just use which python2.4 or which python3.5 or which python3.6 to find the directory for --python=DIRECTORY

furins · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-19 09:25:54Z

5

This post on the bitbucket issue tracker of virtualenvwrapper may be of interest. It is mentioned there that most of virtualenvwrapper's functions work with the venv virtual environments in Python 3.3.

edited Jun 19, 2016 at 9:25

furins

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answered Jul 10, 2013 at 0:09

0 _

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Comments

Mustapha-Belkacim · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-05 17:30:59Z

0

I added export VIRTUALENV_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3 to my ~/.bashrc like this:

export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/.virtualenvs
export VIRTUALENV_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3
source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

then run source .bashrc

and you can specify the python version for each new env mkvirtualenv --python=python2 env_name

answered Apr 5, 2020 at 17:30

Mustapha-Belkacim

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