Configuring bash alias for virtualenvwrapper

Question

I have compiled Python 2.7.6 from source in Ubuntu 12.0.4.3. It can be found in /opt/python276/bin/python2.7

I then created alias python276=/opt/python276/bin/python2.7 in .bashrc

in the bash terminal, I can type python276 and receive the correct interpreter, but when I try to create a virtualenv using virtualenvwrapper:

puffin@ubuntu:/opt/python276/bin$ mkvirtualenv test -p python276
The executable python276 (from --python=python276) does not exist

What am I missing? I can create virtualenvs with the system python, but not the compiled one.

** Edit **

I eventually found exactly what I was looking for. The way to create a virtualenv without having to specify the actual path is by creating a symlink. In this situation, I would create a symlink from the Python executable to ~/bin then prepend ~/bin to my path.

ln -s /opt/python3.3/bin/python3.3 ~/bin/python33
echo 'export PATH=~/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc

I can then do mkvirtualenv testenv -p python33

Answer 1

Note an alias works when calling it. If you use it as a parameter of another command, it is not interpreted. Hence, in your mkvirtualenv ... you should specify explicitly the path of this python.

Otherwise, you can set a variable

mypython276=/opt/python276/bin/python2.7

and then do

mkvirtualenv test -p $mypython276

---

As said in comments, you can also add /opt/python3.3/bin/ into the PATH variable.