Upgrade python in a virtualenv

Question

Is there a way to upgrade the version of python used in a virtualenv (e.g. if a bugfix release comes out)?

I could pip freeze --local > requirements.txt, then remove the directory and pip install -r requirements.txt, but this requires a lot of reinstallation of large libraries, for instance, numpy, which I use a lot.

I can see this is an advantage when upgrading from, e.g., 2.6 -> 2.7, but what about 2.7.x -> 2.7.y?

Answer 1

If you're using pipenv, I don't know if it's possible to upgrade an environment in place, but at least for minor version upgrades it seems to be smart enough not to rebuild packages from scratch when it creates a new environment. E.g., from 3.6.4 to 3.6.5:

$ pipenv --python 3.6.5 install
Virtualenv already exists!
Removing existing virtualenv…
Creating a v$ pipenv --python 3.6.5 install
Virtualenv already exists!
Removing existing virtualenv…
Creating a virtualenv for this project…
Using /usr/local/bin/python3.6m (3.6.5) to create virtualenv…
⠋Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/local/bin/python3.6m
Using base prefix '/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.5/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6'
New python executable in /Users/dmoles/.local/share/virtualenvs/autoscale-aBUhewiD/bin/python3.6
Also creating executable in /Users/dmoles/.local/share/virtualenvs/autoscale-aBUhewiD/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...done.

Virtualenv location: /Users/dmoles/.local/share/virtualenvs/autoscale-aBUhewiD
Installing dependencies from Pipfile.lock (84dd0e)…
                                                                      

                                                        
            

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Answer 2

Updated again: The following method might not work in newer versions of virtualenv. Before you try to make modifications to the old virtualenv, you should save the dependencies in a requirement file (pip freeze > requirements.txt) and make a backup of it somewhere else. If anything goes wrong, you can still create a new virtualenv and install the old dependencies in it (pip install -r requirements.txt).

Updated: I changed the answer 5 months after I originally answered. The following method is more convenient and robust.

Side effect: it also fixes the Symbol not found: _SSLv2_method exception when you do import ssl in a virtual environment after upgrading Python to v2.7.8.

Notice: Currently, this is for Python 2.7.x only.

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If you're using Homebrew Python on OS X, first deactivate all virtualenv, then upgrade Python:

brew update && brew upgrade python

Run the following commands (<EXISTING_ENV_PATH> is path of your virtual environment):

cd <EXISTING_ENV_PATH>
rm .Python
rm bin/pip{,2,2.7}
rm bin/python{,2,2.7}
rm -r include/python2.7
rm lib/python2.7/*
rm -r lib/python2.7/distutils
rm lib/python2.7/site-packages/easy_install.*
rm -r lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip
rm -r lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-*.dist-info
rm -r lib/python2.7/site-packages/setuptools
rm -r lib/python2.7/site-packages/setuptools-*.dist-info

Finally, re-create your virtual environment:

virtualenv <EXISTING_ENV_PATH>

By doing so, old Python core files and standard libraries (plus setuptools and pip) are removed, while the custom libraries installed in site-packages are preserved and working, as soon as they are in pure Python. Binary libraries may or may not need to be reinstalled to function properly.

This worked for me on 5 virtual environments with Django installed.

BTW, if ./manage.py compilemessages is not working afterwards, try this:

brew install gettext && brew link gettext --force

Answer 3

If you happen to be using the venv module that comes with Python 3.3+, it supports an --upgrade option. Per the docs:

Upgrade the environment directory to use this version of Python, assuming Python has been upgraded in-place

python3 -m venv --upgrade ENV_DIR

Answer 4

I moved my home directory from one mac to another (Mountain Lion to Yosemite) and didn't realize about the broken virtualenv until I lost hold of the old laptop. I had the virtualenv point to Python 2.7 installed by brew and since Yosemite came with Python 2.7, I wanted to update my virtualenv to the system python. When I ran virtualenv on top of the existing directory, I was getting OSError: [Errno 17] File exists: '/Users/hdara/bin/python2.7/lib/python2.7/config' error. By trial and error, I worked around this issue by removing a few links and fixing up a few more manually. This is what I finally did (similar to what @Rockalite did, but simpler):

cd <virtualenv-root>
rm lib/python2.7/config
rm lib/python2.7/lib-dynload
rm include/python2.7
rm .Python
cd lib/python2.7
gfind . -type l -xtype l | while read f; do ln -s -f /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/${f#./} $f; done

After this, I was able to just run virtualenv on top of the existing directory.