How to launch python Idle from a virtual environme

Question

I have a package that I installed from a virtual environment. If I just launch the python interpreter, that package can be imported just fine. However, if I launch Idle, that package cannot be imported (since it's only available in one particular virtualenv and not global). How can I launch Idle from a virtualenv, so that all packages from the virtualenv would be available?

Answer 1

Python 3.6 modernized and refactored idlelib. This change included the renaming of several methods. Because of this, idlelib.PyShell must now be accessed with idlelib.pyshell. The following snippet is based on the accepted answer and should work for any Python version:

#!/usr/bin/env python
"""Simple script to run Idle from a venv in PyCharm."""

try:
    # Import for Python pre 3.6
    from idlelib.PyShell import main
except ModuleNotFoundError:
    # Import for Python version 3.6 and later
    from idlelib.pyshell import main

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Answer 2

For me launching something like this just works (Linux terminal):

source venv/bin/activate && python `which idle` &

(venv is path to your venv obviously)

Answer 3

Putting a few answers together and here is how I do this on Window with a fully functional batch file.

Make idle.bat in your virtualenv's Scripts directory. It will create (unless they exist) both links to tcl and tk (version 8.5 as of writing) and put them in you virtualenv's Lib directory then it fires up idle. Copy and paste this code exactly into an editor. Change the path names for your current virtualenv and Python install (mine is the standard for 2.7) then save it into Scripts/idle.bat.

IF EXIST C:\<path to current virtualenv>\Lib\tcl8.5 (
REM do nothing
) ELSE (
    mklink /d C:\<path to current virtualenv>\Lib\tcl8.5 "c:\Python27\tcl\tcl8.5"
)
IF EXIST C:\<path to current virtualenv>\Lib\tk8.5 (
REM do nothing
) ELSE (
    mklink /d C:\<path to current virtualenv>\Lib\tk8.5 "c:\Python27\tcl\tk8.5"
)

python -c "from idlelib.PyShell import main; main()"

Run the script with Powershell (RUN AS ADMIN!) to open idle.

cd c:\<path to current virtualenv>\
./Scripts/idle.bat

Answer 4

IDLE is essentially

from idlelib.PyShell import main
if __name__ == '__main__':
  main()

So you can launch it yourself unless you built the virtualenv without default packages.

Answer 5

I am using Ubuntu 15.04 operating system. I have installed some packages using virtualenv.

So, to run the files inside virtualenv including those packages I use the following commands in terminal

(Name of my virtual environment is venv):

#Activate the virtualenv venv
source venv/bin/activate

#To Run IDLE in virtualenv venv
python -m idlelib

After running the IDLE, you can open file using ctrl+o keyboard shortcut.

Answer 6

Short answer

1. Start the virtual environment
2. Run python -m idlelib.idle

From this answer.

Long answer

This answer assumes Python 3.

There are a few different virtual environment managers, each of which has a slightly different way of handling where python is installed and how it's run, as detailed in this answer.

This answer assumes the venv module is used, and that it was installed following the docs.

Note: Some Linux distributions package the venv module into a separate package: Ubuntu and Debian

If the virtual environment was installed in a project folder called my_project_dir by running python -m venv my_project-venv from inside that folder, the virtual environment will be inside a new folder created by the module:

my_project_dir
      │
      ┝━ my_project-venv

On Windows, with Python 3.7.1, the files inside the my_project-venv folder will probably look like this:

my_project-venv
      │
      ┝━ Include
      ┝━ Lib
      ┝━ Scripts
      │     ┝━ ...
      │     ┝━ activate.bat
      │     ┝━ Activate.ps1
      │     ┝━ deactivate.bat
      │     ┕━ ...
      │
      ┕━ pyvenv.cfg

The virtual environment can be started by running either the activate.bat or Activate.ps1 script, depending on whether cmd or PowerShell is used:

:: Using cmd.exe
cd my_project_dir
.\my_project-venv\Scripts\activate.bat

# Using PowerShell
cd my_project_dir
.\my_project-venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

Note: These scripts don't keep the shell open if run by double-clicking them. Start a shell, then run them by typing the above commands, with the folder names changed for your project

On most other operating systems, the virtual environment folder will look like this:

my_project-venv
      │
      ┝━ bin
      │     ┝━ ...
      │     ┝━ activate
      │     ┝━ activate.csh
      │     ┝━ activate.fish
      │     ┕━ ...
      │
      ┝━ include
      ┝━ lib
      ┝━ lib64
      ┕━ pyvenv.cfg

Then, from any shell other than csh or fish, activate the environment by:

# Most operating systems
cd my_project_dir
. my_project-venv/bin/activate

For csh and fish there are shell-specific scripts for activating the virtual environment (activate.csh and activate.fish, respectively) and they can be run like the activate script.

Once the virtual environment has been activated on all operating systems, running the following will start IDLE with access to the packages installed into the virtual environment:

python -m venv idlelib.idle