How to rename a virtualenv in Python?
Question:
I misspelled the name of the virtualenv while initializing it using:
$ virtualenv vnev
I actually intended to create the environment with the name venv.
Having tried to rename the vnev folder to venv, I find that this doesn’t provide much help. The name of the activate environment still renames the old vnev.
$ mv vnev venv
$ . venv/bin/activate
(vnev) $ deactivate
I would like to know how to go about renaming the environment?
Answers:
By default virtualenv does not support the renaming of environments. It is safer to just delete the virtualenv directory and create a new one with the correct name. You can do this by:
- Activate your virtualenv:
source vnev/bin/activate
- Create a requirements.txt of currently installed packages:
pip freeze > requirements.txt
- Delete the misspelled virtualenv:
rm -r vnev/
- Create a new virtualenv with correct name:
virtualenv venv
- Activate new virtualenv:
source venv/bin/activate
- Install packages from requirements.txt:
pip install -r requirements.txt
If recreating is not an option there are 3rd party tools like virtualenv-mv that might be helpful.
Alternatively you can use virtualenvwrapper which provides the cpvirtualenv command to copy or rename virtualenvs.
If you use virtualenvwrapper this can be done by:
$ cpvirtualenv <wrong_name> <correct_name>
$ rmvirtualenv <wrong_name>
Also, FYI, to rename a conda virtualenvironment, check out this question.
My answer is similar to creating a new virtual environment with the dependencies of the old one, but this one is succinct.
-
Clone the old environment (say venv_1) to a new environment (say venv_2) using conda.
conda create -n venv_2 –clone venv_1
This creates a new environment venv_2 cloning the venv_1. Hence no separate task of getting the packages/ dependencies. Single step suffices.
-
Delete the old virtual environment. [This step is optional if you still want to keep the old environment]
rm -rf “fully qualified path of the old virtual environment”
So in 1/2 steps the task can be achieved.
In windows I was able to easily rename my virtual environment by editing activate.bat inside scripts:
-
Backup the original activate.bat (I copy&pasted then renamed mine BACKUP_activate.bat).
-
Right-click and edit activate.bat.
-
Change VIRTUAL_ENV variable from:
set VIRTUAL_ENV=C:some_dirold_venv_name
into
set VIRTUAL_ENV=C:some_dirnew_venv_name
-
Change PROMPT variable from:
set PROMPT=(old_venv_name) %PROMPT%
into
set PROMPT=(new_venv_name) %PROMPT%
-
Save the edited batch file
NOTE: My solution should work and save windows users setting up new virtual environments, I have no knowledge scripting or whatsoever in linux or other operating systems
cpvirtualenv from virtualenv-wrapper errored out for me trying to run virtualenv-clone, but running that directly worked fine:
virtualenv-clone ~/.virtualenvs/oldname ~/.virtualenvs/newname
workon newname
rmvirtualenv oldname
No need to reinstall anything.
The steps I use to rename a virtual environment:
- Copy the entire virtual environment folder to the new virtual environment.
cp -a old_venv new_venv
- Use
sed within the new_venv/bin folder to directly change references to old_v.env
cd new_venv/bin
# remove cache as sed would otherwise break with the `sed: couldn't edit __pycache__: not a regular file` error
rm -rf __pycache__/
sed -i 's/old_venv/new_venv/g' *
- Remove the old virtual environment
rm -rf old_env
Re-installing the ipykernel for jupyter may be required, but otherwise everything seems to work fine
I misspelled the name of the virtualenv while initializing it using:
$ virtualenv vnev
I actually intended to create the environment with the name venv.
Having tried to rename the vnev folder to venv, I find that this doesn’t provide much help. The name of the activate environment still renames the old vnev.
$ mv vnev venv
$ . venv/bin/activate
(vnev) $ deactivate
I would like to know how to go about renaming the environment?
By default virtualenv does not support the renaming of environments. It is safer to just delete the virtualenv directory and create a new one with the correct name. You can do this by:
- Activate your virtualenv:
source vnev/bin/activate - Create a requirements.txt of currently installed packages:
pip freeze > requirements.txt - Delete the misspelled virtualenv:
rm -r vnev/ - Create a new virtualenv with correct name:
virtualenv venv - Activate new virtualenv:
source venv/bin/activate - Install packages from requirements.txt:
pip install -r requirements.txt
If recreating is not an option there are 3rd party tools like virtualenv-mv that might be helpful.
Alternatively you can use virtualenvwrapper which provides the cpvirtualenv command to copy or rename virtualenvs.
If you use virtualenvwrapper this can be done by:
$ cpvirtualenv <wrong_name> <correct_name>
$ rmvirtualenv <wrong_name>
Also, FYI, to rename a conda virtualenvironment, check out this question.
My answer is similar to creating a new virtual environment with the dependencies of the old one, but this one is succinct.
-
Clone the old environment (say venv_1) to a new environment (say venv_2) using conda.
conda create -n venv_2 –clone venv_1
This creates a new environment venv_2 cloning the venv_1. Hence no separate task of getting the packages/ dependencies. Single step suffices.
-
Delete the old virtual environment. [This step is optional if you still want to keep the old environment]
rm -rf “fully qualified path of the old virtual environment”
So in 1/2 steps the task can be achieved.
In windows I was able to easily rename my virtual environment by editing activate.bat inside scripts:
-
Backup the original
activate.bat(I copy&pasted then renamed mineBACKUP_activate.bat). -
Right-click and edit
activate.bat. -
Change
VIRTUAL_ENVvariable from:set VIRTUAL_ENV=C:some_dirold_venv_nameinto
set VIRTUAL_ENV=C:some_dirnew_venv_name -
Change
PROMPTvariable from:set PROMPT=(old_venv_name) %PROMPT%into
set PROMPT=(new_venv_name) %PROMPT% -
Save the edited batch file
NOTE: My solution should work and save windows users setting up new virtual environments, I have no knowledge scripting or whatsoever in linux or other operating systems
cpvirtualenv from virtualenv-wrapper errored out for me trying to run virtualenv-clone, but running that directly worked fine:
virtualenv-clone ~/.virtualenvs/oldname ~/.virtualenvs/newname
workon newname
rmvirtualenv oldname
No need to reinstall anything.
The steps I use to rename a virtual environment:
- Copy the entire virtual environment folder to the new virtual environment.
cp -a old_venv new_venv
- Use
sedwithin thenew_venv/binfolder to directly change references toold_v.env
cd new_venv/bin
# remove cache as sed would otherwise break with the `sed: couldn't edit __pycache__: not a regular file` error
rm -rf __pycache__/
sed -i 's/old_venv/new_venv/g' *
- Remove the old virtual environment
rm -rf old_env
Re-installing the ipykernel for jupyter may be required, but otherwise everything seems to work fine