[Python-Dev] Proposal for virtualenv functionality in Python

Michael Foord fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk
Fri Feb 19 23:11:02 CET 2010


On 19/02/2010 16:30, Gregory P. Smith wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 4:18 PM, P.J. Eby<pje at telecommunity.com>  wrote:
>    
>> At 01:49 PM 2/19/2010 -0500, Ian Bicking wrote:
>>      
>>> I'm not sure how this should best work on Windows (without symlinks, and
>>> where things generally work differently), but I would hope if this idea is
>>> more visible that someone more opinionated than I would propose the
>>> appropriate analog on Windows.
>>>        
>> You'd probably have to just copy pythonv.exe to an appropriate directory,
>> and have it use the configuration file to find the "real" prefix.  At least,
>> that'd be a relatively obvious way to do it, and it would have the advantage
>> of being symmetrical across platforms: just copy or symlink pythonv, and
>> make sure the real prefix is in your config file.
>>
>> (Windows does have "shortcuts" but I don't think that there's any way for a
>> linked program to know *which* shortcut it was launched from.)
>>      
> Some recent discussion pointed out that vista and win7 ntfs actually
> supports symlinks.  the same question about determining where it was
> launched from may still hold there? (and we need this to work on xp).
>
> How often do windows users need something like virtualenv?  (Asking
> for experience from windows users of all forms here).  I personally
> can't imagine anyone that would ever use a system generic python
> install from a .msi unless they're just learning python.  I would hope
> people would already use py2exe or similar and include an entire
> CPython VM with their app with their own installer but as I really
> have nothing to do with windows these days I'm sure I'm wrong.
>    

I've used virtualenv on Windows and it is just as useful as on other 
platforms. *Most* Python developers I know work from an installed Python 
although application distribution is typically done with py2exe. The 
Windows msi installer is downloaded an insane amount from Python.org.

Michael


> What about using virtualenv with ironpython and jython?  does it make
> any sense in that context?  how do we make it not impossible for them
> to support?
>
> despite all the questions, I'm +1 on going ahead with a PEP and sprint
> discussions to figure out how to get it in for CPython 3.2 and 2.7.
>
> -gps
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