Python

Virtual Environments

Create virtual environment

I use a custom function in PowerShell for creating virtual environments. However, this is only valid for my personal PowerShell profile and won't work outside it. It's really just a shortcut to run the actual code anyway.

PowerShell functionTerminal command

createvenv

All this really does is run the actual terminal command, as seen in the "Terminal command" tab.

python -m venv venv

The first venv is the name of your virtual environment. The second venv is the directory. I generally create virtual environments in a project's root folder, where I want the directory to be located.

Activate virtual environment

Similar to creating a virtual environment, I have a custom PowerShell function that I use to activate virtual environments.

PowerShell functionTerminal command

venv

Like with the createvenv PowerShell function, this is really just a shortcut for the terminal command.

venv\Scripts\activate

The venv is the name of the directory where the virtual environment is located relative to the current directory in the terminal.

Deactivate virtual environment

Deactivating a virtual environment is easy and requires no special shortcut. You simply run:

deactivate

While the virtual environment is active, of course.

pip

pip is the package installer for Python that's run through a terminal.

Freeze & install requirements

pip makes it very easy to handle requirements for a Python project by "freezing" them and then "installing" them. This is very helpful for virtual environments.

To "freeze" a project's packages:

pip freeze > requirements.txt

And then, when a project has a requirements.txt included, installing the packages is as easy as:

pip install -r requirements.txt