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I'd like to create a virtualenv which does not use symlinks to the local system, as I wish to bundle the virtualenv (including third party packages) with my application. Is this possible - and if so, how?

For example, on my Mac OS X 10.10.2, any virtualenv I create contains the symlink:

.Python -> /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Python

If I create my virtualenv directly on a network server share with --always-copy I get an error:

$ virtualenv --always-copy python2.7.9_win7-64_stalker0.2.13 New python executable in python2.7.9_win7-64_stalker0.2.13/bin/python Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/local/bin/virtualenv", line 11, in <module> sys.exit(main()) File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 825, in main symlink=options.symlink) File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 985, in create_environment site_packages=site_packages, clear=clear, symlink=symlink)) File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1374, in install_python symlink) File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 482, in copyfile copyfileordir(src, dest, symlink) File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 456, in copyfileordir shutil.copy2(src, dest) File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/shutil.py", line 131, in copy2 copystat(src, dst) File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/shutil.py", line 103, in copystat os.chflags(dst, st.st_flags) OSError: [Errno 22] Invalid argument: 'python2.7.9_win7-64_stalker0.2.13/.Python'
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  • Not sure what's going on, but you really should not use system python for anything at all. (Besides, I don't know what you have installed - my 10.10.2 system virtualenv doesn't even recognise --always-copy option.) My recommendation is pyenv or homebrew (or both, also pyenv-virtualenv is useful). Also try it on a normal volume (not a network share) first, see if it works this way. Commented Mar 3, 2015 at 9:42
  • @letitbee - a normal volume does not result in the errors and --always-copy is recognized. Thanks. I will also look into proper packaging of the interpreter using Platter, as suggested in the accepted answer. Commented Mar 3, 2015 at 9:43

2 Answers 2

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With Python 3 and venv module, one can create a "thick" virtual environment without symlinks using --copies flag:

$ python -m venv --copies thick_venv $ ls -l thick_venv/bin/ total 36836 -rw-r--r--. 1 br0ke br0ke 2230 May 19 17:54 activate -rw-r--r--. 1 br0ke br0ke 1282 May 19 17:54 activate.csh -rw-r--r--. 1 br0ke br0ke 2434 May 19 17:54 activate.fish -rw-r--r--. 1 br0ke br0ke 8832 May 19 17:54 Activate.ps1 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 266 May 19 17:54 easy_install* -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 266 May 19 17:54 easy_install-3.8* -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 248 May 19 17:54 pip* -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 248 May 19 17:54 pip3* -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 248 May 19 17:54 pip3.8* -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 18833904 May 19 17:54 python* -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 18833904 May 19 17:54 python3*

As you can see, it copies the interpreter into the virtual environment (twice). And here is an example of usual virtual environment with symlinks:

$ python -m venv thin_venv $ ls -l thin_venv/bin/ total 44 -rw-r--r--. 1 br0ke br0ke 2227 May 19 17:54 activate -rw-r--r--. 1 br0ke br0ke 1279 May 19 17:54 activate.csh -rw-r--r--. 1 br0ke br0ke 2431 May 19 17:54 activate.fish -rw-r--r--. 1 br0ke br0ke 8832 May 19 17:54 Activate.ps1 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 265 May 19 17:54 easy_install* -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 265 May 19 17:54 easy_install-3.8* -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 247 May 19 17:54 pip* -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 247 May 19 17:54 pip3* -rwxr-xr-x. 1 br0ke br0ke 247 May 19 17:54 pip3.8* lrwxrwxrwx. 1 br0ke br0ke 50 May 19 17:54 python -> /home/br0ke/.asdf/installs/python/3.8.3/bin/python* lrwxrwxrwx. 1 br0ke br0ke 6 May 19 17:54 python3 -> python*
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Its not as thick as you think. Virtual enviroments in Python only isolate you from the 3rd party modules, they are still dependent on the standard library from the host OS.
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Mayhaps try solving bigger problem (of sensibly packaging) instead of tweaking virtualenv internals?

For example take a look at http://platter.pocoo.org/ or mayhaps at http://cx-freeze.sourceforge.net/ (I am not sure which scenario you mean).

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