virtualenv confusion

Question

So I open a terminal, cd to my desktop, and run:

virtualenv test_env

I then create the following file in my normal environment:

/home/jesse/.local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/foo_package/__init__.py

This file contains one line:

print "importing from normal env"

In the test_env I create:

/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/foo_package/__init__.py

Containing:

print "importing from test env"

Now I open a terminal and run:

$ /home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/bin/python

And then do:

>>> import foo_package

Which outputs:

importing from normal env

Why doesn't it import the file from test_env? I thought that was the whole point of virtualenv. Am I missing something here?

Edit: Jon H informed me that I need to activate the environment. But this doesn't seem to fix the problem...

jesse@jesse-laptop:~/Desktop/test_env$ source bin/activate
(test_env)jesse@jesse-laptop:~/Desktop/test_env$ bin/python
Python 2.6.2 (release26-maint, Apr 19 2009, 01:56:41) 
[GCC 4.3.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import foo_package
importing from normal env
>>> 

Using Ubuntu 9.04 / Python 2.6.2 / virtualenv 1.33 in case that's relevant.

Edit 2: Haes asked me what sys.path was in my virtualenv...

jesse@jesse-laptop:~/Desktop/test_env$ source bin/activate
(test_env)jesse@jesse-laptop:~/Desktop/test_env$ bin/python
Python 2.6.2 (release26-maint, Apr 19 2009, 01:56:41) 
[GCC 4.3.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import sys
>>> sys.path

Output: ['', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/setuptools-0.6c9-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/enum-0.4.3-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/clonedigger-1.0.9_beta-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ETS-3.2.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/TraitsGUI-3.0.4-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/TraitsBackendWX-3.1.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/TraitsBackendQt-3.1.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/yolk-0.4.1-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pylint-0.18.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/logilab_astng-0.19.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/logilab_common-0.39.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pudb-0.92.7-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Pygments-1.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ETSProjectTools-0.5.1-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pydee-0.4.24-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/visionegg-1.2.1-py2.6-linux-i686.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyOpenGL-3.0.0c1-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Whoosh-0.2.6-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyinotify-0.8.6-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/svgbatch-0.1.9-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyglet-1.1.3-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/lepton-1.0b2-py2.6-linux-i686.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/rope-0.9.2-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/simplejson-2.0.9-py2.6-linux-i686.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pymunk-0.8.4-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/cssutils-0.9.6-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Shapely-1.0.14-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/sympy-0.6.5-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenvwrapper-1.20-py2.6.egg', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/plat-linux2', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/lib-tk', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/lib-old', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/lib-dynload', '/usr/lib/python2.6', '/usr/lib/python2.6/plat-linux2', '/usr/lib/python2.6/lib-tk', '/home/jesse/.local/lib/python2.6/site-packages', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/site-packages', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Numeric', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PIL', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gst-0.10', '/var/lib/python-support/python2.6', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gtk-2.0', '/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/gtk-2.0', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/wx-2.8-gtk2-unicode']

Edit 3: I found this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-virtualenv/+bug/339904 Apparently there are some issues with virtualenv + python 2.6 + ubuntu 9.04. Not sure if that's related to my issue... I tried uninstalling the python-virtualenv package via Synaptic and then installing version 1.3.4 of virtualenv via easy_install, but still have the same problem...

jesse@jesse-laptop:~/Desktop/test_env$ source bin/activate
(test_env)jesse@jesse-laptop:~/Desktop/test_env$ bin/python
Python 2.6.2 (release26-maint, Apr 19 2009, 01:56:41) 
[GCC 4.3.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import foo_package
importing from normal env
>>> import sys
>>> print sys.path
['', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/setuptools-0.6c9-py2.6.egg', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/plat-linux2', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/lib-tk', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/lib-old', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/lib-dynload', '/usr/lib/python2.6', '/usr/lib/python2.6/plat-linux2', '/usr/lib/python2.6/lib-tk', '/home/jesse/.local/lib/python2.6/site-packages', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/site-packages', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/enum-0.4.3-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/clonedigger-1.0.9_beta-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ETS-3.2.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/TraitsGUI-3.0.4-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/TraitsBackendWX-3.1.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/TraitsBackendQt-3.1.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/yolk-0.4.1-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pylint-0.18.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/logilab_astng-0.19.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/logilab_common-0.39.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pudb-0.92.7-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Pygments-1.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ETSProjectTools-0.5.1-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pydee-0.4.24-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/visionegg-1.2.1-py2.6-linux-i686.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyOpenGL-3.0.0c1-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Whoosh-0.2.6-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyinotify-0.8.6-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/svgbatch-0.1.9-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyglet-1.1.3-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/lepton-1.0b2-py2.6-linux-i686.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/rope-0.9.2-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/simplejson-2.0.9-py2.6-linux-i686.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pymunk-0.8.4-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/cssutils-0.9.6-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Shapely-1.0.14-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/sympy-0.6.5-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenvwrapper-1.20-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenv-1.3.4-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/enum-0.4.3-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ETS-3.2.0-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/yolk-0.4.1-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Whoosh-0.2.6-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyinotify-0.8.6-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyglet-1.1.3-py2.6.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/simplejson-2.0.9-py2.6-linux-i686.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/gtk-2.0', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Numeric', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PIL', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gst-0.10', '/var/lib/python-support/python2.6', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gtk-2.0', '/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/gtk-2.0', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/wx-2.8-gtk2-unicode']

This looks like a step forward, because test_env stuff is appearing in the path, but it's still not working. I think my current problem is that '/home/jesse/.local/lib/python2.6/site-packages' occurs in the path before '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/site-packages'

Edit 4: Roger suggested creating the env with the --no-site-packages option. I tried that. Same problem.

jesse@jesse-laptop:~/Desktop/test_env$ source bin/activate
(test_env)jesse@jesse-laptop:~/Desktop/test_env$ bin/python
Python 2.6.2 (release26-maint, Apr 19 2009, 01:56:41) 
[GCC 4.3.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import foo_package
importing from normal env
>>> import sys
>>> sys.path
['', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/setuptools-0.6c9-py2.6.egg', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/plat-linux2', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/lib-tk', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/lib-old', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/lib-dynload', '/usr/lib/python2.6', '/usr/lib/python2.6/plat-linux2', '/usr/lib/python2.6/lib-tk', '/home/jesse/.local/lib/python2.6/site-packages', '/home/jesse/Desktop/test_env/lib/python2.6/site-packages']
>>> 

Again, it looks like the problem is the site-packages in my ".local" appears earlier in the path than the site-packages in "test_env".

Answer 1

You're running into a bug in virtualenv. It has not yet been updated to handle .local directories properly. I've filed an issue for this at the bug tracker.

UPDATE: this bug is now fixed in virtualenv 1.4.2 and later.

Answer 2

From the steps you mentioned, it seems you haven't activated the virtual env. Do:

source bin/activate

.. within the virtualenv you created. You should see something like:

(test_env)computername:foldername$

Running python from here should get your virtualenv version.

Without this step it will still use your default Python installation.

Answer 3

Edit: Post above me is correct, you forgot to activate. Using virtualenvwrapper I've never really done that step so my bad :)

Looking at that, it looks like you're doing everything right but I would like to make a suggestion incase you've never heard of it: virtualenvwrapper makes working with virtualenv so much quicker and easier. Might be fun to try it out and see if you still get the same issue, maybe you'll find what you were missing.

Answer 4

And you need to create the virtual environment with the option --no-site-packages