So, I have a python script I’d like to run from time to time from the CLI (on Linux) that resides inside a venv. What’s the recommended/intended way to do this?
Write a wrapper shell script and put it inside a $PATH-accessible directory that activates the virtual environment, runs the python script and deactivates the venv again? This seems a bit convoluted, but I can’t think of a better way.
Just in case this comment didn’t make it explicitly clear, you can just invoke the python binary inside your venv directly and it will automatically locate all the libraries that are installed in your virtual environment.
To show how this works, you can look at the
sys.pathvariable to see which paths python will search for modules when you run import statements. Try runningpython3 -c 'import sys; print(sys.path)'using your system python, and you will only see system python library paths. Then, try running it again after replacingpython3with the full path to thepython3binary in your venv, and you will see an additional entry in the output with thelibdirectory in your venv, which shows that python will also look there for modules when an import statement is executed.