Python 3 environments

Packing stuff to your global environment isn’t good, mkay? Python 3 comes with out-of-the-box support for environments.

Create a new environment in the current directory.

$ python3 -m venv env

The command will create a new directory called env.

$ ls -l
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  6 paul  staff  192 Jan 27 18:52 env

Your environment is there but it’s not quite over yet. Activate it

$ source env/bin/activate

env is again the name of the environment. You’re gonna see it’s working as your prompt has changed to

(env) $

Deactivating

(env) $ deactivate

deactivates the environment. You’re gonna see it’s working as your prompt has changed back to

$

Now you can leave your project and go about doing something else. When you’re back, just activate the environment again.

One more thing

Hey, about that directory you’ve created. Don’t touch it, and it’s gonna be fine. Make sure to add it to your .gitignore.

$ echo "env/*" >> .gitignore