pipsi + pyenv + pipenv

This is an unpublished post. It's likely (more) full of spelling mistakes and errors. It may also end abruptly without a conclusion.

Let’s start with the obligitory xkcd comic for this topic:

xkcd comic of mess of python deps

This blogpost will hopefully introduce a relatively sensible way of trying to keep python versions and their dependencies clean

Setup

Step One - pipsi

The first step is to get pipsi on your system. To quote their docs:

pipsi makes installing python packages with global entry points painless

We’ll use this later to install global cli scripts in isolated from the rest of our python verions and packages.

Step Two - pyenv

We want pyenv to manage all the different versions of python. Installation instructions are covered in the instructions https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv#installation

Step Three - pipenv

Using pipsi from the first step we can now install pipenv in its own isolated environment:

pipsi install pipenv

Bringing it all together

Now say we need to start a new project which should target python 3.7.1 let’s run:

mkdir new_project
cd new_project
pipenv --python 3.7.1

we should then see:

Warning: Python 3.7.1 was not found on your system…
Would you like us to install CPython 3.7.1 with pyenv? [Y/n]: 

and then:

Installing CPython 3.7.1 with pyenv (this may take a few minutes)…
✔ Success! 
Downloading Python-3.7.1.tar.xz...
-> https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.7.1/Python-3.7.1.tar.xz
Installing Python-3.7.1...
Installed Python-3.7.1 to /home/steve/.pyenv/versions/3.7.1


Creating a virtualenv for this project…
Pipfile: /home/steve/code/new_project/Pipfile
Using /home/steve/.pyenv/versions/3.7.1/bin/python3 (3.7.1) to create virtualenv…
⠇ Creating virtual environment...created virtual environment CPython3.7.1.final.0-64 in 483ms
  creator CPython3Posix(dest=/home/steve/.local/share/virtualenvs/temppy-AdQMg6OT, clear=False, global=False)
  seeder FromAppData(download=False, pip=latest, setuptools=latest, wheel=latest, via=copy, app_data_dir=/home/steve/.local/share/virtualenv/seed-app-data/v1)
  activators BashActivator,CShellActivator,FishActivator,PowerShellActivator,PythonActivator,XonshActivator

✔ Successfully created virtual environment! 
Virtualenv location: /home/steve/.local/share/virtualenvs/temppy-AdQMg6OT
Creating a Pipfile for this project…

Let’s break down what this has done:

  1. Detected that we didn’t have python 3.7.1 on our system and installed it for us.
  2. Setup an isolated virtualenv for this project using python 3.7.1
  3. Created a pipfile for the project to describe our dependencies.
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