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VIRTUALENV(1) VIRTUALENV(1)

NAME

virtualenv - create virtual Python instances

SYNOPSIS

virtualenv [options...] [destination-directory]

DESCRIPTION

virtualenv creates virtual Python executables, each of which can have its own set of installed modules. Programs that require different versions of modules or sets of modules that may be incompatible with others to be installed on the same system without conflicts.
 
The result is a directory containing its own Python executables (in DIR/bin/pythonVER and DIR/bin/python) and its own module directory containing the standard library as installed by the system. Additional modules may be installed via setuptools, as invoked from the binary directory ( DIR/bin/easy_install). The system´s site-packages directories will not be available by default, but can be made visible with the --system-site-packages option. They can then be overridden with locally-installed modules.
 
In addition, a shell script called "activate" will be installed in the bin directory. If sourced, this will cause normal invocations of the Python executable to use the virtual environment.
 
By running the virtualenv command explicitly under the desired Python interpreter, the user can control which version of Python is created in the virtual environment.

OPTIONS

-h, --help
Show summary of options.
--version
Show the version of the program.
-v, --verbose
Be more verbose.
-q, --quiet
Be less verbose; suppress unimportant output.
--clear
Clear out a previously-created virtual Python instance in this location before creating a new one.
-p PYTHON_EXE,--python=PYTHON_EXE
The Python interpreter to use to create the new environment.
--no-site-packages
Ignored (the default). Don´t give access to the global site-packages modules to the virtual environment.
--system-site-packages
Give access to the global site-packages modules to the virtual environment.
--unzip-setuptools
Unzip Setuptools or Distribute when installing it.
--relocatable
Make an EXISTING virtualenv environment relocatable.
--distribute
Ignored. Distribute is used by default. See --setuptools to use Setuptools instead of Distribute.
--setuptools
Use Setuptools instead of Distribute. Set environ variable VIRTUALENV_SETUPTOOLS to make it the default.
--extra-search-dir=SEARCH_DIRS
Directory to search for setuptools/distribute/pip distributions in. Can be specified multiple times.
--never-download
Never download anything from the network. Instead, fail if local distributions of setuptools/distribute/pip are not present.
--prompt==PROMPT
Provides an alternative prompt prefix for this environment.

AUTHORS

This manual page was originally written by Jeff Licquia <licquia@debian.org>, later rewritten by Carl Chenet <chaica@ohmytux.com>.

LICENSE

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
 
On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2007 Jeff Licquia
12/02/2009