virtualenvwrapper

virtualenvwrapper is a set of extensions to the virtualenv tool that includes wrappers for creating and deleting virtual Python environments.

External Documentation

virtualenvwrapper Web Site

Installation Notes

First, make sure that Python 3 is installed.

The virtualenvwrapper package can be installed on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04 using the following command:

sudo apt-get install virtualenvwrapper

The next step is to decide where you want your virtual Python environments to be stored. By default, they will be stored here:

~/.virtualenvs

If you want them to be stored somewhere else, set the following environment variable in your ~/.profile:

export WORKON_HOME=~/venv

Now add the following line to your ~/.bashrc and then log out and log back in again to set up your shell environment:

source /usr/share/virtualenvwrapper/virtualenvwrapper.sh

Now you should be able to create a new virtual Python environment for working with our code crafting tools:

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

After the new environment is created, it should be automatically activated. This should be evident by the (codecraftsmen) prefix shown in your command prompt:

(codecraftsmen) user@host:~$

The virtual environment can be deactivated like this:

deactivate

and reactivated like this:

workon codecraftsmen

When a virtual environment is activated, any new Python packages installed using pip only apply to the active environment and global (system) site packages are disabled.