ipython installed in virtualenv seems not to use virtualenv

[Gelonida N]

Hi,


Short version
==============
I have a system with ipython installed by my Ubuntu distribution
I created a virtualenv with

virtualenv ~/myenv I installed ipython
pip install ipython --upgrade

When using ipython I notice, that it does import the modules from my
default python setup and not from my virtualenv.

Why?
What could I have done differently?



Long version
===================


I created a virtualenv with

virtualenv ~/myenv

THis inherits my machines site packages.
The reason I'm not using

virutalenv --no-site-packages ~/myenv

is that I would like to use some of the site packages,
in particular some, that I don't want to compile due to huge package
dependencies.


Small problem is, that if I run ipython in a virtualenv
it will still call /usr/bin/ipython

and if I check the modules, that I import I seem to import the modules
of my default environment and not the ones of my virtualenv.


So I decided I will install my own version of ipython in my virtualenv

The output if pip install ipython is a little confusing.

Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): ipython in /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6

As I am a normal user and I don't have permissions to overwrite /usr/lib
I decided to just give it a try and hope it will install in my
virtualenv path and not in /usr/lib/...

After running

pip install ipython --upgrade

I have my own version of ipython.

However when calling and using it I notice it still imports the modules
from my default python and not from my virtualenv?

Why does ipython ignore the virtualenv's settings?

I know there are workarounds, but I wondered why it doesn't work out of
the box.

 

[becky_lewis]

Hi,

are you doing a pip install from within your virtualenv (sourcing the
virtualenv and THEN installing ipython)?

Becky Lewis

 

[Gelonida N]

Hi,

are you doing a pip install from within your virtualenv (sourcing the
virtualenv and THEN installing ipython)?

Yes this is what I was doing.

My default ipython without virtualenv is now:
$ ipython -V
0.10

Within my virualenv it is now:
$ ipython --version
0.11


which ipython
indicates also, that is well placed in my virtual env's tree


I forced a reinstall of the library, that was found by my virtualenv
python, but was NOT found by my virtualenv ipython.

and now everything works fine.

This is weird. But I'm glad it's working now.


Tried to reproduce the issue on another (rather similiar machine), but
couldn't

 

[becky_lewis]

Just to add ...

I ran through creating a virtualenv in the same manner as you:

$ virtualenv SomeEnv
$ source SomeEnv/bin/activate
(SomeEnv)$ which pip
/home/user/virtual/SomeEnv/bin/pip
(SomeEnv)$ pip install ipython
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): ipython in /
usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages
Cleaning up...
(SomeEnv)$ pip install ipython --upgrade
.... pip installs ipython ...
(SomeEnv)$ which ipython
/home/user/virtual/SomeEnv/bin/ipython

(SomeEnv)$ ipython
Python 2.6.4 (r264:75706, Dec 7 2009, 18:45:15)
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

IPython 0.11 -- An enhanced Interactive Python.
? -> Introduction and overview of IPython's features.
%quickref -> Quick reference.
help -> Python's own help system.
object? -> Details about 'object', use 'object??' for extra details.

In [1]: import os

In [2]: os.__file__
Out[2]: '/home/user/virtual/SomeEnv/lib/python2.6/os.pyc'

In [3]: import dbus

In [4]: dbus.__file__
Out[4]: '/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dbus/__init__.pyc'

ipython is using the virtualenv when it can find them and the system
wide packages when they are not in the virtualenv. Hope that helps you
track down the problem :/

 

[Gelonida N]

Just to add ...

I ran through creating a virtualenv in the same manner as you:


ipython is using the virtualenv when it can find them and the system
wide packages when they are not in the virtualenv. Hope that helps you
track down the problem :/

Thanks once more.

I guess something in my virtualenv was broken.
I can't reproduce the issue anymore since I forced a reinstall of one of
y packages and now things work as I would have expected them to work.

Happy that thins work now.
Unhappy, that I did not understand why they went wrong before.