Many a time, you might have come across situations where your existing Python interpreter gets loaded & messed up with too many unrelated libraries leading to cumbersome. To avoid such situations, the Python community always suggests having a separate Virtual Environment for each task/project. Ways of Creating a Virtual Environment: 1. Virtualenv 2. Pipenv (My favorite) 1. Prerequisites Install pip Usually, Python3 comes with pip preinstalled. If you get an error “pip command not found”, use the following command to install pip: sudo easy_install pip 2. Virtualenv A tool for creating isolated Python environments. virtual Install virtualenv Virtualenv is a tool to create isolated Python projects. You can think of it as a cleanroom, isolated from other versions of Python and libraries. Enter this command into the terminal: sudo pip install virtualenv Start virtualenv Navigate to where you want to store your code, e.g., navigate to your project folder for which you want to create a separate virtual environment. Create a new directory mkdir my_project && cd my_project Now, inside my_project folder, create a new virtualenv virtualenv venv here ‘venv’ is the name of the virtual environment getting created Activate virtualenv source venv/bin/activate Deactivate virtualenv deactivate Python Version on the Virtual Environment python  --version Install Packages Create a ‘requirements.txt’ file Add the name of the Python packages you need to install in the virtual env (each package in separate lines) Run the below command pip install -r requirements.txt Check installed packages pip list 3. Pipenv Pipenv is a Python virtual environment management tool. This is a tool that combines virtual environments with package management. It creates a new virtual environment for each project and automatically installs the required packages from a Pipfile. It’s designed to simplify the process of managing dependencies for your projects and provides a simpler interface than virtualenv. pip install pipenv Once you’ve done that, you can effectively forget about since Pipenv essentially acts as a replacement. pip virtualenv -p python3 .venvpipenv install If folder is not created/not found, then pipenv creates a virtual environment in the default location on your system. Now, two new files, the (which is meant to replace ) and the (which enables deterministic builds) will get created. .venv [Pipfile](https://github.com/pypa/pipfile) requirements.txt Pipfile.lock pipenv shell This will create a virtual environment using the .venv folder in your project folder. pipenv check This will scan your dependency graph for known security vulnerabilities! pipenv lock -r This will convert and into a file very easily. Pipfile Pipfile.lock requirements.txt In this tutorial, we learned how Python virtual environments avoid conflicts between dependencies of different projects or system-wide. Also, we learned how to work on distinct projects with different dependencies by switching between these self-contained environments using the two simple but powerful methods. Happy to share my personal experiences! Resources https://towardsdatascience.com/manage-your-python-virtual-environment-with-conda-a0d2934d5195 https://docs.pipenv.org/advanced/#configuration-with-environment-variables

This story contains new, firsthand information uncovered by the writer.

Walkthroughs, tutorials, guides, and tips. This story will teach you how to do something new or how to do something better.

Read My Stories

Too Long; Didn't Read

Make resilience your competitive advantage

A Quick Guide for Creating Python Virtual Environments

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

Untitled Story

104 Stories To Learn About Go

105 Stories To Learn About Functional Programming

100+ Free Pluralsight Courses to learn Python, Java, and Spring Boot

10 Websites to Learn JavaScript for Beginners

104 Stories To Learn About Programming Top Story

104 Stories To Learn About Go

105 Stories To Learn About Functional Programming

100+ Free Pluralsight Courses to learn Python, Java, and Spring Boot

10 Websites to Learn JavaScript for Beginners

104 Stories To Learn About Programming Top Story

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps