Using Python virualenv and virtualenvwrapper.
We will first start with virtualenv, then talk about the better method (in my opinion) using virtualenvwrapper.
Installation
$ pip install virtualenv
Basic Usage
Create a virtual environment for a project
$ cd my_project_folder
$ virtualenv dev
| This will create a new directory called dev in the current directory which contains the python executables. |
Use the -p flag to specify the version of python to use (with the path to the executable).
$ virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python2.7 dev
To use the virtual environment we need to activate it
$ source dev/bin/activate
You can now install packages as normal, but these packages will only be available within this virtualenv
$ pip install boto
When you are done, you can deactivate the environment
$ deactivate
To delete the virtual environment, simply delete the directory.
$ rm -rf dev
Other Usage
Create a file called requirements.txt containing the packages you’ve installed in the running virtualenv.
$ pip freeze > requirements.txt
Install packages from an existing requirements.txt file.
$ pip install requirements.txt
virtualenvwrapper
readthedocs
virtualenvwrapper makes working with virtual environments a bit easier by cutting out some commands, and keeping all of your virtualenvs in one place.
Install the virtualenvwrapper
$ pip install virtualenvwrapper
Add these lines to your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc and source it.
...
export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python
export WORKON_HOME=~/envs
[ -f /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh ] && source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh
...
$ source ~/.bash_profile
Make a new virtualenv (it will now be in your $WORKON_HOME)
mkvirtualenv env1
Deactivating is the same
(env1)
$ deactivate
Work on a virtual environment
$ workon env1
to delete a virtual environment
$ rmvirtualenv env1