How can I activate a virtualenv in Linux?

Question

I have been searching and tried various alternatives without success and spent several days on it now; it is driving me mad.

I am running on Red Hat Linux with Python 2.5.2. I began using the most recent Virtualenv, but I could not activate it. I found somewhere suggesting I needed an earlier version, so I have used Virtualenv 1.6.4 as that should work with Python 2.6.

It seems to install the virtual environment ok

python virtualenv-1.6.4/virtualenv.py virtual

Output:

New python executable in virtual/bin/python
Installing setuptools............done.
Installing pip...............done.

The environment looks ok

cd virtual
dir

Output:

bin  include  lib

Trying to activate

. bin/activate

Output:

/bin/.: Permission denied.

I checked chmod

cd bin
ls -l

Output:

total 3160
 -rw-r--r--    1 necrailk biz12        2130 Jan 30 11:38 activate
 -rw-r--r--    1 necrailk biz12        1050 Jan 30 11:38 activate.csh
 -rw-r--r--    1 necrailk biz12        2869 Jan 30 11:38 activate.fish
 -rw-r--r-

It was a problem, so I changed it

ls -l

Output:

total 3160
-rwxr--r--    1 necrailk biz12        2130 Jan 30 11:38 activate
-rw-r--r--    1 necrailk biz12        1050 Jan 30 11:38 activate.csh
-rw-r--r--    1 necrailk biz12        2869 Jan 30 11:38 activate.fish
-rw-r--r--    1 necrailk biz12        1005 Jan 30 11:38 activate_this.py
-rwxr-xr-x    1 necrailk biz

Tring activate again

. bin/activate

Output:

/bin/.: Permission denied.

Still no joy...

Darla

have you tried "source ~/virtual/bin/activate"? – Forceful

From with the directory of your environment do . bin/activate and it should work fine. – Conventionalize

I think you just needed to use the source command, i.e. source bin/activate – Stipule

I think you have to do this from the virtualenv directory so first cd ~/.virtualenvs/*environmentname* then source ~/.virtual/bin/activate – Ryan

Answer 1

Here is my workflow after creating a folder and cd'ing into it:

virtualenv venv --distribute

Output:

New python executable in venv/bin/python
Installing distribute.........done.
Installing pip................done.

And

source venv/bin/activate
python

If

ok, tried this no joy [necrailk@server6 ~/virtual]$ cd [necrailk@server6 ~]$ $source virtual/bin/activate source: Undefined variable. [necrailk@server6 ~]$ sh virtual/bin/activate [necrailk@server6 ~]$ – Darla

Don't type the $ character, which ii looks like you did here: [necrailk@server6 ~]$ $source. $ is used to indicate a command prompt. – Lexi

Still getiing badly placed ()'s error...what to do? – Uppercut

same error here :( user@mintdesk ~/python_v $ venv/bin/activate bash: venv/bin/activate: Permission denied – Genus

An alternative to typing 'source' all the time is to use a '.': $ . venv/bin/activate – Antependium

Use activate.csh instead of activate – Offspring

what if there is no /bin/activate file? – Thing

@Uppercut I got the same error, I think the script is a bash file, so make sure you are running it in bash. I receive the error using cshell – Fleurette

"--distribute DEPRECATED. Retained only for backward compatibility" is shown to me using "virtualenv --help", version 16.6.0. Thus, not necessary anymore?! – Rumble

Answer 2

You forgot to do source bin/activate, where source is an executable name. It struck me the first few times as well. It is easy to think that the manual is telling "execute this from root of the environment folder".

There isn't any need to make activate executable via chmod.

Gabrielgabriela

OP typed . bin/activate. Note the ., which is a synonym for source. – Yardstick

"source is an executable name"... which executable? cmd.exe? powershell.exe? – Pasteboard

I'm trying to activate an environment from cron, and it wouldn't work without being executable (chmod 755). – Winthrop

activate is just a script and its first two lines say: 1 # This file must be used with "source bin/activate" from bash 2 # you cannot run it directly". so I think this should be the accepted answer – Ambitendency

In a cron job you'd want to run the whole thing via bash -c. A virtual environment has no meaning outside a shell, so you need to run the shell and pass it a command line that changes to the correct directory and activates the virtualenv, then does whatever else needs doing in the context of the virtualenv. Might be easier to write a short script to do all that if it's at all complex. – Deserving

Answer 3

You can do

source ./python_env/bin/activate

Or just go to the directory:

cd /python_env/bin/

and then

source ./activate

Siskin

Answer 4

Go to the project directory. In my case microblog is the flask project directory and under microblog directory there should be app and venv folders. then run the below command, This is one worked for me in Ubuntu.

source venv/bin/activate

Phip

Answer 5

cd to the environment path, and go to the bin folder. At this point, when you use the ls command, you should see the "activate" file.

Now type

source activate

Copland

Answer 6

Run this code. It will get activated if you are on a Windows machine:

. venv/Scripts/activate

Run this code. It will get activated if you are on a Linux or Mac machine:

. venv/bin/activate

Belligerence

it worked with env instead venv on linux for me – Singapore

yeah that's good then your venv name is might be env thats why. – Belligerence

@VitaliyTerziev - in your virtual environment must have been create as env not venv. – Belligerence

Please review Why not upload images of code/errors when asking a question? (e.g., "Images should only be used to illustrate problems that can't be made clear in any other way, such as to provide screenshots of a user interface.") and do the right thing (it covers answers and program input/output as well). Thanks in advance. – Pyx

Answer 7

mkdir <YOURPROJECT>: Create a new project

cd <YOURPROJECT>: Change directory to that project

virtualenv <NEWVIRTUALENV>: Creating a new virtualenv

source <NEWVIRTUALENV>/bin/activate: Activating that new virtualenv

Hamish

Answer 8

The problem there is the /bin/. command. That's really weird, since . should always be a link to the directory it's in. (Honestly, unless . is a strange alias or function, I don't even see how it's possible.) It's also a little unusual that your shell doesn't have a . builtin for source.

One quick fix would be to just run the virtualenv in a different shell. (An obvious second advantage being that instead of having to deactivate you can just exit.)

/bin/bash --rcfile bin/activate

If your shell supports it, you may also have the nonstandard source command, which should do the same thing as ., but may not exist. (All said, you should try to figure out why your environment is strange or it will cause you pain again in the future.)

By the way, you didn't need to chmod +x those files. Files only need to be executable if you want to execute them directly. In this case you're trying to launch them from ., so they don't need it.

Distilled

Also, you should source bin/activate, not .bin/activate. Might even work with the . then... – Dam

@Dam True, I had assumed that was a typo, since in the next line he cds into bin. – Distilled

hi[necrailk@server6 ~/virtual]$ source bin/activate Badly placed ()'s. [necrailk@server6 ~/virtual]$ – Darla

korjiro - you were correct - i did need to find out why environment was odd - it turned out to be a non standard bash implementation- switching to standard bash solved all of the problems – Darla

Answer 9

Instead of ./activate, use source activate:

Myers

Please review Why not upload images of code/errors when asking a question? (e.g., "Images should only be used to illustrate problems that can't be made clear in any other way, such as to provide screenshots of a user interface.") and do the right thing (it covers answers and program input/output as well). Thanks in advance. – Pyx

Answer 10

For Windows, you can perform it as:

To create the virtual environment as: virtualenv envName –python=python.exe (if not, create an environment variable)

To activate the virtual environment: \path\to\envName\Scripts\activate

To deactivate the virtual environment: \path\to\env\Scripts\deactivate

It works fine on the new Python version.

Laevorotation

To add clarifying details to this: once you create your virtual environment with virtualenv venv , then manually go into the Scripts folder that was created just to look at the files, you'll see some activate files. So that is where we activate it for Windows. So cd into your Scripts folder and type . activate into your command line (be sure to include a space after the period). You'll notice your path in the command line changes, by adding (venv) to the beginning of your path. This means it's now activated. – Laubin

'.' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. – Canoe

Answer 11

Windows 10

In Windows, these directories are created:

To activate the virtual environment in Windows 10.

down\scripts\activate

The \scripts directory contains the activate file.

Linux Ubuntu

In Ubuntu, these directories are created:

To activate the virtual environment in Linux Ubuntu.

source ./bin/activate

The /bin directory contains the activate file.

---

The virtual environment can be copied from Windows to Linux Ubuntu and vice versa

If the virtual environment folder is copied from Windows to Linux Ubuntu then according to directories:

source ./down/Scripts/activate

Hideous

Answer 12

I would recommend virtualenvwrapper as well. It works wonders for me and how I always have problems with activating.

Kraft

hi source and . (period) seem interchangable necrailk@server6 ~/virtual]$ source bin/activate Badly placed ()'s. this does not seem to work – Darla

my bin permission: drwxrwxr-x 2 erika erika 4096 2013-01-24 14:37 bin/ – Kraft

according to the docs virtuallenvwrapper currently is not tested for python2.5 so not comfortable adding to my possible problems- but thanks – Darla

Just a roundup. discovered my host was using a non standard shell. When changed to normal Bash everything worked as it should. now displays virtual env in the prompt and all paths are modified accordinglt. Many thanks for the help and suggestions. – Darla

Answer 13

Create your own Python virtual environment called <your environment _name>:.

I have given it the name "VE".

git clone https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv.git
python virtualenv.py VE

To activate your new virtual environment, run (notice it's not ./ here):

. VE/bin/activate

Sample output (note prompt changed):

(VE)c34299@a200dblr$

Once your virtual environment is set, you can remove the Virtualenv repository.

Sup

You shouldn't be checking out the master branch of virtualenv and expecting it to actually work. Use a tagged version instead. – Benetta

Answer 14

On Mac, change the shell to Bash (keep note that virtual env works only in the Bash shell)

. venv/bin/activate

.: Command not found.

source venv/bin/activate

Badly placed ()'s.

bash
source venv/bin/activate

New prompt:

(venv) bash-3.2$

Bingo, it worked. See, the prompt changed.

On Ubuntu:

source toolsenv/bin/activate

New prompt:

(toolsenv) user@local_host~/tools$

Note: the prompt changed

Democratic

Works in zsh too, atleast now – Fagan

Answer 15

I had trouble getting source /bin/activate running, but then I realized I was using tcsh as my terminal shell instead of Bash.

Once I switched, I was able to activate venv.

Shawnna

Answer 16

I was getting this error "-sh: 13: source: not found"

Resolution is to first login as sudo

1. $sudo su

Then execute the command

2. #source virtual_env_name/bin/activate

Gwen

Answer 17

I had faced the same problem. The main reason being that I created the virtualenv as a "root" user. But later I was trying to activate it using another user.

chmod won't work as you're not the owner of the file, hence the alternative is to use chown (to change the ownership).

For example, if you have your virtualenv created at /home/abc/ENV.

Then cd to /home/abc.

And run the command: chown -Rv [user-to-whom-you want-change-ownership] [folder/filename whose ownership needs to be changed]

In this example, the commands would be: chown -Rv abc ENV

After the ownership is successfully changed, you can simply run source /ENV/bin/./activate and your should be able to activate the virtualenv correctly.

Inattentive

Answer 18

1. Open a PowerShell window and navigate to your application folder
2. Enter your virtualenv folder, for example: cd .\venv\Scripts\
3. Activate the virtual environment by typing .\activate

Unfavorable

Answer 19

This is for Git Bash running on Windows Server 2022. There is a question for Git Bash but it links to here as a duplicate.

Everything works fine after . my-venv/Scripts/activate if I stay on the drive with the venv folder. But if I try to work on another drive it falls apart:

$ which python
/f/\my-venv/Scripts/python
$ cd /c
$ which python
/c/Users/myuser/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python311/python

Not sure if this is a known problem or something specific to my system, but in case somebody else runs into it, there it is...

(I worked around it by keeping code & venv on the same drive).

Nik