pythonaliasespipenv

making a commandline alias to a python file in a pipenv project

I've been making a python project using pipenv, and I want to be able to run it in a terminal from any location on my (linux) system. Specifically, say I have the following directory structure:

/home
  /project
    Pipfile
    main.py
  /other_dir

I would like to be able to make an alias that allows me to call main.py like so:

 /home/other_dir$ alias_to_my_proyect --some args

and run it in the virtual env, having the same behaviour as

/home/project$ pipenv run python main.py

But in another directory.

If it weren't a pipenv project, I'd just use a shebang a the start of the file and then add an alias to it in my .bashrc, but I want to use pipenv's virtual environment, but I cant find a way to do this with pipenv.

Solution

  • If you want to use a specific python environment for your script you will need to point it to the interpreter of that environment. On Mac the default is that pipenv installs all virtualenvs to /Users/<user_name>/.local/share/virtualenvs/ however that can be set to different locations as described in the manual:

    Pipenv automatically honors the WORKON_HOME environment variable, if you have it set — so you can tell pipenv to store your virtual environments wherever you want, e.g.:

    export WORKON_HOME=~/.venvs

    In addition, you can also have Pipenv stick the virtualenv in project/.venv by setting the PIPENV_VENV_IN_PROJECT environment variable.

    You can find out where the exact location of the virtualenv is with pipenv --venv inside your project folder. It returns something like /Users/reedef/.local/share/virtualenvs/project-BpR9WgCa. The interpreter is in ./bin/python of that location.

    If we assume that you did not set any environment variable and you are using Mac than that means that you can write a script:

    #!/usr/bin/env sh
/Users/reedef/.local/share/virtualenvs/project-BpR9WgCa/bin/python /home/project/main.py

    and place it somewhere in your $PATH, e.g. /usr/local/bin/my_fancy_main to let it run in that specific environment.

    Note: as mentioned by @Jon in the comments, -BpR9WgCa at the end of the path is stable as it is made from the project path:

    hash = hashlib.sha256(location.encode()).digest()[:6]

    It should be the same as long as the project path hasn't changed.