mkvirtualenv: Too many levels of symbolic links

Question

I am running virtualenv burrito and getting an error that there are too many levels of symbolic links. I have no idea what that means.

mkvirtualenv --python /usr/local/bin/Python3 mantis

Error:

Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/local/bin/Python3
Using base prefix '/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4'
New python executable in mantis/bin/Python3
Also creating executable in mantis/bin/python
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/croberts/.venvburrito/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 2352, in <module>
    main()
  File "/Users/croberts/.venvburrito/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 825, in main
    symlink=options.symlink)
  File "/Users/croberts/.venvburrito/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 985, in create_environment
    site_packages=site_packages, clear=clear, symlink=symlink))
  File "/Users/croberts/.venvburrito/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1439, in install_python
    raise e
  File "/Users/croberts/.venvburrito/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1431, in install_python
    stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/subprocess.py", line 859, in __init__
    restore_signals, start_new_session)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/subprocess.py", line 1457, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg)
OSError: [Errno 62] Too many levels of symbolic links

I was getting this error before and solved it by doing Python3.4 instead of Python3. Now it won't work no matter which python I try to use. Even if I try to use the default (2.7)

Answer 1

Strangely, I ran into this when I tried to create a virtualenv with a name that already existed. Solution to remove the old and create a new one:

rmvirtualenv old-one
mkvirtualenv new-one