Virtualenv - Python 3 - Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit

Question

I am trying to install virtualenv for Python 3 on Ubuntu 64bit 14.04.

I have installed pip for Python3 using:

pip3 install virtualenv

and everything works fine. Now though I am trying to use virtualenv command to actually create the environment and getting the error that it is not install (i guess because I haven't installed it for Python 2 and that is what it is trying to use)

How do I use the virtualenv for Python 3? I have searched the documentation but can't see where it says what to do.

Answer 1

I had the same issue coming from development environments on OS X where I could create Python 3 virtual environments by simply invoking virtualenv and the path to the target directory. You should be able to create a Python 3.x virtual environment in one of two ways:

1. Install virtualenv from the PyPi as you've done ($ pip3 install virtualenv), then by calling it as a module from the command line:

   $ python3 -m virtualenv /path/to/directory

2. Use the venv module, which you can install through apt-get. (Note that Python 3.3 is when this module was introduced, so this answer assumes you're working with at least that):

   $ sudo apt-get install python3.4-venv

   Then you can set up your virtual environment with

   $ pyvenv-3.4 /path/to/directory

   and activate the environment with

   $ source /path/to/directory/bin/activate

You might also look at this post, which discusses differences between the venv module and virtualenv. Best of luck!