virtualenvwrapper recipe

Virtualenvwrapper is a great way to manager Python environments. This is a quick cheatsheet for using it.

Setup

Get Python

On OS X:
<install MacPorts>

sudo port install python27
sudo port select python python27

Install standard packages

 sudo easy_install pip
sudo pip install virtualenv
sudo pip install virtualenvwrapper
sudo pip install yolk

Configure virtualenvwrapper

In your .zshrc, .bashrc, etc, add:

source $(dirname $(which python))/virtualenvwrapper.sh

In your .zshenv, .bashrc, etc., add:

export WORKON_HOME=~/.virtualenvs

Create .virtualenvs directory:

 mkdir $WORKON_HOME

List available environments

workon

Make an environment

Note: environments are stored in your ~/$WORKON directory and you can issue these commands from anywhere.

mkvirtualenv myproject

Select an environment

workon myproject

Within an environment, pip install packages as usual.

See the Virtualenvwrapper docs for more information.