Python VirtualEnv setup

Replication and tracking of development environments doesn’t have to be a pain. Here we cover a quick setup of python virtual environment setup for reproducability and tracking.

Some quick checks to verify what is installed on my machine.

$python --version
Python 2.7.15+
$pip --version
pip 9.0.1 from /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (python 2.7)
python3 --version
Python 3.7.5 
$pip3 --version
pip 9.0.1 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages (python 3.7)
$ which python3
/usr/bin/python3
$ nwhich pip3
/usr/bin/pip3
$which virtualenv
/home/bmt/.local/bin/virtualenv
$virtualenv --version
16.7.7
# today we want to setup a python3 virtual environment
virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python3 venv
#now look at contents of the venv directory created.
$ ls -la venv

source venv/bin/activate
#bash shell now returns something like this 
(venv) username@hostname:/foobar-dir-path/$
#remember to check and recognise the virtual env name, 
#form a habit of uniquely naming virtual environments to 
#avoid confusion.
#check the python version used by your new virtual environment
$ which python
$ python --version
# to exit a virtual…