Activate virtualenv via os.system()

Question

I\'m writing a Python-based shell script to boilerplate a Django app with virtualenv, pip, and fabric. Should be straightforward enough, but it appears that I\'m not able to

Answer 1

Just don't use "source activate" at all. It does nothing but alter your shell PATH to put the virtualenv's bin directory first. I presume your script knows the directory of the virtualenv it has just created; all you have to do is call _virtualenv_dir_/bin/easy_install by full path. Or _virtualenv_dir_/bin/python for running any other python script within the virtualenv.

Answer 2

You could also install virtualenvwrapper, and use the postmkvirtualenv hook. I use it to automatically bring in fresh copies of pip and IPython into virtualenvs I create (as I don't want it using my system IPython). I also use it to copy pythonw into the virtualenv, otherwise wx-based stuff won't work. Looks like this:

easy_install pip
pip install -I ipython
cd ~/bin
python install_pythonw.py ${VIRTUAL_ENV}

Answer 3

Each call to os.system runs the command in a new subshell, which has the same properties as the original python process.

Try putting the commands into one string separated by semicolons.

Answer 4

Each os.system call creates a new process. You'll need to ensure that the activate and the easy_install are run in the same os.system or subprocess call.