VIRTUALENV(1)

💖 VIRTUALENV(1) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the General Commands Manual — section 1, the big leagues. this is the virtualenv page, and i'm gonna walk you through it like we're texting at 2am. grab a snack. 🍓

---

✨ NAME ✨

virtualenv — the Python virtual environment creator. that's it, that's the whole vibe. she makes worlds. 🌈

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

virtualenv [options...] dest

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so basically the virtualenv utility creates virtual Python instances, and every single one of them gets invoked with its own personal Python executable. main character energy, truly. 👑

each instance can have a totally different set of modules, and you install those via easy_install. and the best part? virtual Python instances can also be created without root access. no sudo, no begging, no nothing. we love a permission-free queen. 💅

---

🌸 optional arguments: 🌸

• --version — display the version of the virtualenv package and it's location, then exit
• --with-traceback — on failure also display the stacktrace internals of virtualenv (default: False)
• --read-only-app-data — use app data folder in read-only mode (write operations will fail with error) (default: False)
• --app-data APP_DATA — a data folder used as cache by the virtualenv (default: ~/.local/share/virtualenv)
• --reset-app-data — start with empty app data folder (default: False)
• --upgrade-embed-wheels — trigger a manual update of the embedded wheels (default: False)
• -h, --help — show help and exit

---

🌸 verbosity: 🌸

okay so the whole vibe here is: verbosity = verbose - quiet, default INFO, and the mapping goes like this => CRITICAL=0, ERROR=1, WARNING=2, INFO=3, DEBUG=4, NOTSET=5. math but make it gossip. 🧮

• -v, --verbose — increase verbosity (default: 2)
• -q, --quiet — decrease verbosity (default: 0)

---

🦋 discovery: 🦋

this section is literally about discovering and providing a target interpreter. it's giving treasure hunt. 🔍

• --discovery {builtin} — interpreter discovery method (default: builtin)
• -p py, --python py — target interpreter for which to create a virtual (either absolute path or identifier string) (default: /usr/bin/python3)
• --try-first-with py_exe — try first these interpreters before starting the discovery (default: [])

---

🎀 creator: 🎀

options for creator builtin. yes she named a whole section after herself. iconic.

• --creator {builtin,cpython3-posix,venv} — create environment via (builtin = cpython3-posix) (default: builtin)
• dest — directory to create virtualenv at
• --clear — remove the destination directory if exist before starting (will overwrite files otherwise) (default: False)
• --no-vcs-ignore — don't create VCS ignore directive in the destination directory (default: False)
• --system-site-packages — give the virtual environment access to the system site-packages dir (default: False)
• --symlinks — try to use symlinks rather than copies, when symlinks are not the default for the platform (default: True)
• --copies, --always-copy — try to use copies rather than symlinks, even when symlinks are the default for the platform (default: False)

heads up bestie: --clear is the dramatic one — it removes the destination directory if it exists before starting. and if you don't pass it, files get overwritten anyway. choose your fighter. 💀

---

🌈 seeder: 🌈

options for seeder app-data. sprinkling the good stuff. 🌱

• --seeder {app-data,pip} — seed packages install method (default: app-data)
• --no-seed, --without-pip — do not install seed packages (default: False)
• --download — pass to enable download of the latest pip, setuptools, and wheel from PyPI (default: False)
• --no-download, --never-download — pass to disable download of the latest pip, setuptools, and wheel from PyPI (default: True)
• --extra-search-dir d [d ...] — a path containing wheels the seeder may also use beside bundled (can be set 1+ times) (default: [])
• --pip version — pip version to install, bundle for bundled (default: latest)
• --setuptools version — setuptools version to install, bundle for bundled (default: latest)
• --wheel version — wheel version to install, bundle for bundled (default: latest)
• --no-pip — do not install pip (default: False)
• --no-setuptools — do not install setuptools (default: False)
• --no-wheel — do not install wheel (default: False)
• --no-periodic-update — disable the periodic (once every 14 days) update of the embedded wheels (default: True)
• --symlink-app-data — symlink the python packages from the app-data folder (requires seed pip>=19.3) (default: False)

---

💜 activators: 💜

options for activation scripts. the moment everyone's been waiting for. ✨

• --activators comma_sep_list — activators to generate - default is all supported (default: bash,cshell,fish,powershell,python,xonsh)
• --prompt prompt — provides an alternative prompt prefix for this environment (default: None)

---

config file $HOME/.config/virtualenv/virtualenv.ini (change via env var VIRTUALENV_CONFIG_FILE)

yes bestie, there's a config file. you can swap it out with the env var VIRTUALENV_CONFIG_FILE. customize your life. 🫶

---

💖 AUTHORS 💖

This man-page was created using help2man and then updated by Scott Kitterman <scott@kitterman.com> and is licensed under the same terms as virtualenv.

---

and that's the whole page, no cap. this one lives in the General Commands Manual, and the footer just says VIRTUALENV(1) back at you like a little echo. bye bestie, go make some virtual environments 🦋✨