Pipenv: Can I specify PIPENV_VENV_IN_PROJECT in Pipfile?

[freddrake]

Is there a way to specify PIPENV_VENV_IN_PROJECT in a Pipfile? Adding an empty directory to source control is not universally supported, and dropping a .venv/README.txt or something similar to force creation of the directory seems unfortunate.

[uranusjr]

No, this has been discussed in the past. It really does not make sense because the virtualenv location is a personal preference, not a project preference. There is little reason (as far as I can see) to force others into using the same config.

[freddrake]

That depends very much on the project and other tooling required, doesn't it?

I'll certainly live with the answer being "no", but disagree that it never matters.

[uranusjr]

I agree this may not be impossible, but, well, let’s say I will try to make a very strong argument against this requirement if I ever need to be involved in such a project.

[techalchemy]

We have discussed this in the past -- it is definitely something we want to keep as a user level setting (unless there is a virtualenv in the project directory)

[Flimm]

For the lurkers, here are some related issues:

• You could try to put PIPENV_VENV_IN_PROJECT in .env, but this doesn't work: https://github.com/pypa/pipenv/issues/2313 and https://github.com/pypa/pipenv/issues/1210
• There is an idea to make pipenv support a new per-project configuration file like .pipenv.cfg https://github.com/pypa/pipenv/issues/2778

[techalchemy]

Things you can do:

• Simply create the .venv yourself. Pipenv will use it.
• Use a tool like direnv to activate this setting per directory
• Set the envvar globally
• Create a file in the project root called .venv whose contents are only the path to the root directory of a virtualenv

For points 1 and 4, pipenv will pick this up automatically

[freddrake]

For what it's worth, what I eventually came up with was a script to build a .deb for my project, using a virtualenv created by pipenv as fodder.

To build, my script moves aside any existing pipenv-managed venv and let's pipenv create a new one (at whatever location it happens to choose). The lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages directory is then used as a component to create the raw input for dpkg-deb (which does not contain a venv). The application package then depends on a clean, non-system Python installation.