Python; how and why you should use venv

Python, by itself, is powerful. However, to unlock its full potential, one only needs to scan the various free libraries on PyPI to see how much is possible with a sprinkling of pip packages. A few pip installs will likely work fine:

pip install <package> <package>

And you’ll go on your merry way. However, weeks later, when you start working on something completely separate from that previous project, you’ll again go to install packages:

pip install <package>

And you may encounter any number of issues related to conflicting dependencies. The problem is that while your code for these two projects is isolated:

/projects/
  awesome_project_1/
    main.py
  awesome_project_2/
    main.py

Your dependencies for these two are not. This is easily solvable however, using a handy tool called ‘venv’, which allows you to create a virtual environment to run your Python code, which can be activated or deactivated at any time. This, used in conjunction with a `requirements.txt` file, can easily allow you to share your code with others along with the dependencies necessary to run it.

Installations

Let’s get started by installing the `venv` package.

pip install virtualenv

Easy enough, we now have virtualenv on our machine.

Creating Virtual Environment