assertionerror with python3 and virtualenv

Question

In ubuntu lucid,I have python2.6 by default.I wanted to install python 3.3.1.

I extracted from Python-3.3.1.tar.bz2 into my home folder sothat /home/me/Python-3.3.1 contains all the files.Then as per the Readme I did

./configure
make
make test
sudo make install

This created an executable named python in /home/me/Python-3.3.1 folder.

Also, nowI have several python3* files in the /usr/local/bin directory.

Among them ,

python3 is a link to executable,

python3.3 is an executable,

python3.3m is an executable.

I wanted to create a virtualenv for python3 and tried the following

sudo virtualenv envpy331 --distribute --no-site-packages --python=/home/me/Python-3.3.1/python

This produced an AssertionError

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenv-1.8.2-py2.6.egg/virtualenv.py", line 2471, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenv-1.8.2-py2.6.egg/virtualenv.py", line 942, in main
    never_download=options.never_download)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenv-1.8.2-py2.6.egg/virtualenv.py", line 1043, in create_environment
    site_packages=site_packages, clear=clear))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenv-1.8.2-py2.6.egg/virtualenv.py", line 1207, in install_python
    copy_required_modules(home_dir)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenv-1.8.2-py2.6.egg/virtualenv.py", line 1159, in copy_required_modules
    dst_filename = change_prefix(filename, dst_prefix)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenv-1.8.2-py2.6.egg/virtualenv.py", line 1134, in change_prefix
    (filename, prefixes)
AssertionError: Filename /home/me/Python-3.3.1/Lib/os.py does not start with any of these prefixes: ['/usr/local']

what do I need to correct this? do I need to remove the python3 installation ,or do I need to reconfigure it with prefix=/usr/local ? and again run the install?

Answer 1

You've already installed it. Just point to the installed python3. try this:

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