Start Python in Virtual Environment (virtualenv)

by flandersen

Virtual environments in Python are used to decouple the dependencies of multiple python projects by putting them into a project sub-directory. It is not to be confused with Virtual Machines, which can isolate code execution from the host system, but in contrast require a separate operating system and a lot more system resources.

# goto project directory

cd my_project

# create virtual environment

$ python -m venv .venv

# activate the virtual environment (linux)

source .venv/bin/activate

# activate the virtual environment (windows powershell)

.venv/Scripts/Activate.ps1

# create a file named requirements.txt

echo "requests==2.18.3" >> requirements.txt
echo "beautifulsoup4==4.6.0" >> requirements.txt
echo "isoweek==1.3.3" >> requirements.txt

pip install -r requirements.txt

The dependencies can now be found in the sub-folder .venv.

For further informations about using virtual environments in Python:
https://packaging.python.org/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtualenv/