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I'm trying to use virtualenv in my new mainly Python project. The code files are located at ~/Documents/Project, and I installed a virtual environment in there, located at ~/Documents/Project/env. I have all my packages and libraries I wanted in the env/bin folder.

The question is, how do I actually run my Python scripts, using this virtual environment? I activate it in Terminal, then open idle as a test, and try

"import django"

but it doesn't work. Basically, how can I use the libraries install in the virtual environment with my project when I run it, instead of it using the standard directories for installed Python libraries?

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    If you start a virtualenv, and then open IDLE, I don't think IDLE will open referencing your virtualenv. Commented Mar 12, 2016 at 1:09

2 Answers 2

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Check out the example below, and also the virtualenv documentation. It's actually fairly straightforward if you follow the steps:

virtualenv Project  # creates a new Project dir
cd Project/bin      # could just call Project/bin
. activate          # should now have (Project) in the prompt name
pip install django  # without this, won't be able to import django
deactivate          # switch of virtual mode

I tried the above out in my Mac and worked fine. Here's a transcript for reference.

Transcript of operations

[MacMini]<Documents> :virtualenv Project

[MacMini]<Project> :cd bin/

[MacMini]<bin> :python2.7
Python 2.7.9 (v2.7.9:648dcafa7e5f, Dec 10 2014, 10:10:46)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import django
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named django
>>> quit()

[MacMini]<bin> :. activate

(Project)[MacMini]<bin> :pip install django
You are using pip version 6.0.6, however version 8.1.0 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.
Collecting django
  Downloading Django-1.9.4-py2.py3-none-any.whl (6.6MB)
    100% |################################| 6.6MB 1.2MB/s
Installing collected packages: django

Successfully installed django-1.9.4

(Project)[MacMini]<bin> :python
Python 2.7.10 (default, Oct 23 2015, 18:05:06)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 7.0.0 (clang-700.0.59.5)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import django
>>> quit()

(Project)[MacMini]<bin> :deactivate
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2 Comments

I think the problem might be that I don't have my Python code in the right place. Right now, I have all of my source code under /Documents/Project, and the env is also within that. Do I have to put my project Python files within a special directory in the environment folder? @abehrens
That shouldn't be a problem unless your code directory structure conlicts with the virtualenv structure that prevents 'activate' being sourced correctly. Try creating a brand new temp env first and then copying your code to that temp env. Remember to 'source the activate' script and not actually executing it. Also, check you have cleared any PYTHONPATH variable.
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It's also good practice to make a requires.txt file for all your dependencies. If for example your project requires Flask and pymongo, create a file with:

Flask==<version number you want here> pymongo==<version number you want here>

Then you can install all the necessary libraries by doing:

pip install -r requires.txt

Great if you want to share your project or don't want to remember every library you need in your virtualenv.

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