Issue with virtualenv - cannot activate

Question

I created a virtualenv around my project, but when I try to activate it I cannot. It might just be syntax or folder location, but I am stumped right now.

You can see below, I create the virtualenv and call it venv. Everything looks good, then I try to activate it by running source venv/bin/activate

I'm thinking it might just have to do with my system path, but not sure what to point it to (I do know how to edit the path). I'm on python 7 / windows os, virtual env 2.2.x

Processing dependencies for virtualenv
Finished processing dependencies for virtualenv

c:\testdjangoproj\mysite>virtualenv --no-site-packages venv
The --no-site-packages flag is deprecated; it is now the default behavior.
Using real prefix 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Python'
New python executable in venv\Scripts\python.exe
File venv\Lib\distutils\distutils.cfg exists with different content; not overwri
ting
Installing setuptools.................done.
Installing pip...................done.

c:\testdjangoproj\mysite>source venv/bin/activate
'source' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

c:\testdjangoproj\mysite>source venv/bin/activate
'source' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

c:\testdjangoproj\mysite>source mysite/bin/activate
'source' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

c:\testdjangoproj\mysite>

This documentation really helps out for both Posix and Windows systems: https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/userguide/ — Blairg23, Jul 26 '16 at 21:10

John Flatness · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-17T06:29:42.607

552

source is a shell command designed for users running on Linux (or any Posix, but whatever, not Windows).

On Windows, virtualenv creates a .bat/.ps1 file, so you should run venv\Scripts\activate instead (per the virtualenv documentation on the activate script).

Just run activate, without an extension, so the right file will get used regardless of whether you're using cmd.exe or PowerShell.

edited Feb 17 '21 at 06:29

answered Jan 19 '12 at 04:57

John Flatness

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This also helps with `virtualenv` on both Posix and Windoze systems. https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/userguide/ – Blairg23 Jul 26 '16 at 21:09
I don't see this "venv" directory after installing Python 2.7 on Windows. Advice? I went to Blairg23's link, but do not see an "activate" script in my Python "Scripts" directory. – ryanwebjackson Oct 03 '17 at 02:16
19

or just `activate` – Marcin Rapacz Apr 27 '18 at 11:37
16

i ran `.\\venv\Scripts\activate.bat` but the command just passes on windows 10 without actiavting venv sysmbol **(venv) C:\myApp**. what is the problem – Lutaaya Huzaifah Idris Jun 30 '18 at 08:26
6

I ran `. venv\scripts\activate` On Vscode PowerShell Extension and it worked fine. – ali-myousefi Aug 05 '19 at 04:51
In order to run a bat file in windows, enter full path without . like: "C:\full-path-to-file\activate.bat" – chomp Nov 14 '19 at 13:43
Okay so suppose I created a venv in linux machine and then try to run it in windows. How will I do that? – Jdeep Nov 07 '20 at 06:14
The documentation hyperlink no longer works. – dshefman Feb 10 '21 at 17:19
I did this but getting error when running pip install inside venv. `No python at "path" ` – Murtaza Haji Feb 24 '21 at 17:18
reason for me was running with ".bat" – Pfinnn Jun 24 '22 at 13:38
'.venv\Scripts\activate.bat' seems to be the most reliable option on windows. – Phill Healey Oct 02 '22 at 13:28
Please note if you are using vs code ensure you using cmd terminal. Windows shell happens not to work with this. – Torch Jun 21 '23 at 06:40

score 54 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 20 '18 at 16:40

54

I had the same problem. I was using Python 2, Windows 10 and Git Bash. Turns out in Git Bash you need to use:

 source venv/Scripts/activate

answered Apr 20 '18 at 16:40

jainilvachhani

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13

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I have a Windows computer and using the Git Bash terminal was the only terminal that worked for me. (The other terminals I tried to use was Command Prompt and the VS Code terminal.) – Gwen Au Oct 16 '18 at 17:00

score 40 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '22 at 09:20

40

I was also facing the same issue in my Windows 10 machine. What steps i tried were:

Go to andconda terminal Step 1

pip3 install -U pip virtualenv

Step 2

virtualenv --system-site-packages -p python ./venv

or

virtualenv --system-site-packages -p python3 ./venv

Step 3

.\venv\activate

You can check it via spider tool in anaconda by typing import tensorflow as tf

edited May 23 '22 at 09:20

Goa Beach

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answered Nov 29 '18 at 08:24

Tushar Srivastava

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I keep forgetting that I can't use forward slashes in the command prompt. – CubicInfinity Nov 07 '22 at 17:59

score 36 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 10 '20 at 07:20

36

For activation you can go to the venv your virtualenv directory by cd venv.
Then on Windows, type dir (on unix, type ls). You will get 5 folders include, Lib, Scripts, tcl and 60
Now type .\Scripts\activate to activate your virtualenv venv.

Your prompt will change to indicate that you are now operating within the virtual environment. It will look something like this (venv)user@host:~/venv$.

And your venv is activated now.

edited Mar 10 '20 at 07:20

Jerome

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answered Nov 25 '17 at 07:16

Gautam Kumar

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In Windows10 `.\Scripts\activate` – A. Suliman Mar 23 '19 at 16:11

score 18 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 15 '19 at 23:32

18

source command is officially for Unix operating systems family and you can't use it on windows basically. instead, you can use venv\Scripts\activate command to activate your virtual environment.

$Made a Screenshot of how venv\Scripts\activate command works correctly$

answered Sep 15 '19 at 23:32

Mohammad Heydari

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score 12 · Answer 6 · edited May 24 '20 at 12:21

12

Ensure venv is there and just follow the commands below. It works in Windows 10.

Go to the path where you want your virtual enviroments to reside:

> cd <my_venv_path>

Create the virtual environment named "env":

> python -m venv env

Add the path to the git ignore file (optional):

> echo env/ >> .gitignore

Activate the virtual env:

> .\env\Scripts\activate

edited May 24 '20 at 12:21

MrBean Bremen

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answered May 22 '20 at 11:54

Vineeth I S

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This was right on! – onit Dec 07 '21 at 12:02

score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Jan 03 '21 at 18:38

5

Tried several different commands until I came across:

source venv/Scripts/activate

This did it for me. Setup: Win 10, python 3.7, gitbash. Gitbash might be the culprit for not playing nice with other activate commands.

edited Jan 03 '21 at 18:38

fuggerjaki61

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answered Jan 03 '21 at 15:45

Shah_z51

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This exactly solved my problem. I think this is very correct way in Windows OS. – Codemole Jul 08 '22 at 12:55

score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 21 '18 at 14:38

4

For windows, type "C:\Users\Sid\venv\FirstProject\Scripts\activate" in the terminal without quotes. Simply give the location of your Scripts folder in your project. So, the command will be location_of_the_Scripts_Folder\activate.

answered Jul 21 '18 at 14:38

Siddharth Kumar Shukla

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1
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score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 21 '20 at 12:43

Open your powershell as admin
Enter "Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force
Run "gpedit.msc" and go to >Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Powershell
Look for "Activate scripts execution" and set it on "Activated"
Set execution directive to "Allow All"
Apply
Refresh your env

score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 11 '20 at 15:29

4

if you already cd your project type only in windows 10

Scripts/activate

That works for me:)

answered Jul 11 '20 at 15:29

Bernardo Olisan

665
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score 3 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 27 '18 at 21:23

A small reminder, but I had my slashes the wrong way on Win10 cmd. According to python documentation the activate command is: C:\> <venv>\Scripts\activate.bat When you're browsing directories it's e.g. cd .env/Scripts

So to create my venv I used python -m venv --copies .env and to activate .env\Scripts\activate.bat

score 3 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 25 '22 at 13:35

3

Instead of using:

 source ./venv/Scripts/activate

Use only:

 ./venv/Scripts/activate

Your Script will be activated.

answered Oct 25 '22 at 13:35

ShraOne Devade

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score 2 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 17 '14 at 20:08

2

I have a hell of a time using virtualenv on windows with git bash, I usually end up specifying the python binary explicitly.

If my environment is in say .env I'll call python via ./.env/Scripts/python.exe …, or in a shebang line #!./.env/Scripts/python.exe;

Both assuming your working directory contains your virtualenv (.env).

answered Aug 17 '14 at 20:08

ThorSummoner

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also, some things don't behave correctly *cough _ansible_ cough* when the virtualenv isn't activated, so if things are weird you may have to activate the venv anyway :( – ThorSummoner Jun 18 '18 at 20:15

score 2 · Answer 14 · answered Feb 17 '18 at 09:55

2

You can run the source command on cygwin terminal

answered Feb 17 '18 at 09:55

Paras Singh

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score 2 · Answer 15 · answered Apr 23 '21 at 05:15

2

For windows Microsoft Tech Support it might be a problem with Execution Policy Settings. To fix it, you should try executing Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope Process

answered Apr 23 '21 at 05:15

Bharat Agrawal

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score 2 · Answer 16 · answered Mar 21 '22 at 15:16

2

Some people are having trouble with vscode i assume as all the above methods dont work.

Its simply because by default vscode uses powershell not cmd... click on the little arrow beside it and select cmd and run the command.

answered Mar 21 '22 at 15:16

Jack Froster

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This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient [reputation](https://stackoverflow.com/help/whats-reputation) you will be able to [comment on any post](https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges/comment); instead, [provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/214173/why-do-i-need-50-reputation-to-comment-what-can-i-do-instead). - [From Review](/review/late-answers/31340784) – Ozgur Bagci Mar 23 '22 at 20:32
Even though it doesn't provide an answer to the question, it helps users to who come up here with a scenario he mentioned, like me! – shaneeqa Dec 21 '22 at 09:35

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Sep 25 '19 at 02:39

1

If you’re using Windows, use the command "venv\Scripts\activate" (without the word source) to activate the virtual environment. If you’re using PowerShell, you might need to capitalize Activate.

answered Sep 25 '19 at 02:39

Thenhan

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score 1 · Answer 18 · edited Feb 03 '20 at 02:31

open the folder with any gitbash console. for example using visualCode and Gitbash console program: 1)Install Gitbash for windows

2) using VisualCode IDE, right click over the project open in terminal console option

3) on window console in Visualcode, looking for a Select->default shell and change it for Gitbash

4)now your project is open with bash console and right path, put source ./Scripts/activate

btw : . with blank space = source

score 1 · Answer 19 · answered Nov 25 '21 at 19:57

1

Finally Worked on Windows 10 by using:

activate myvenv

where myvenv is the name the virtual environment I want to activate.

So basically, the command is:

activate <<your_venv_name>>

All the best!

answered Nov 25 '21 at 19:57

vagdevi k

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not working here, you probably have prerequisites installed that you dont mention here. – Pfinnn Jun 24 '22 at 13:37

score 1 · Answer 20 · answered Mar 31 '22 at 12:57

if .\venv\Scripts\activate does not work neither and you find this error

\Activate.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system

you can simple type set-executionpolicy remotesigned in powershell and the error must be gone.

powershell should run as administrator

score 1 · Answer 21 · answered Jun 20 '23 at 18:27

As of python 3.3 virtualenv became part of python under the name venv you can read more on it here

to create a virtual environment you simply do:

python -m venv env

in this case i named it "env" but it can be whatever you want

now to activate it it differs a bit so i'll start with the easiest

linux:

source ./env/bin/Activate

windows:

if you're using cmd then:

.\env\Scripts\activate.bat

if you're using powershell (default for vscode), then you need to do a bit more work

first you need to enable "running scripts" on your system (read this)

you can do that with this (as admin):

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

then you can activate your venv with

.\env\Scripts\activate.ps1

score 0 · Answer 22 · edited Oct 30 '18 at 09:36

0

If you see the 5 folders (Include,Lib,Scripts,tcl,pip-selfcheck) after using the virtualenv yourenvname command, change directory to Scripts folder in the cmd itself and simply use "activate" command.

edited Oct 30 '18 at 09:36

Chan Kha Vu

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answered Oct 30 '18 at 07:22

Abhishek Choudhari

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score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Oct 16 '20 at 13:32

If wants to open virtual environment on Windows then just remember one thing on giving path use backwards slash not forward.

This is right:

D:\xampp\htdocs\htmldemo\python-virtual-environment>env\Scripts\activate

This is wrong:

D:\xampp\htdocs\htmldemo\python-virtual-environment>env/Scripts/activate

score 0 · Answer 24 · answered Feb 22 '22 at 04:39

0

The steps for activating virtualenv using Python3 on windows are:

python3 -m venv env
.\env\bin\activate

answered Feb 22 '22 at 04:39

Lalit Bangad

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score 0 · Answer 25 · answered Mar 07 '22 at 05:25

0

Use These it worked for meenv\Scripts\activate

answered Mar 07 '22 at 05:25

Developer-Felix

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score 0 · Answer 26 · answered Sep 15 '22 at 18:50

For those of you crazy enough to have a custom DOS prompt, venv activation may fail, depending on your %PROMPT% environment variable content.

Say you have a DOS prompt defined as follows:

set PROMPT=$_$E[1;30;40m[$E[0;36;40m%computername% | %userdomain%\%username%$E[1;30;40m] $E[0;33;40m$M$_$E[35;40m$d$s$t$h$h$h$h$h$h$_$E[1;33;40m$p$_$E[1;30;40m$g $E[0;37;40m

(btw, it shows as follows, with some fancy colors:

[W10-MY_COMPUTER | W10-MY_COMPUTER\JOHNDOE]
15/09/2022 20:31
F:\
> echo "Hello World"
Hello World

[W10-MY_COMPUTER | W10-MY_COMPUTER\JOHNDOE]
15/09/2022 20:31
F:\
>

)

Then if you try to activate a venv :

.\venv\Scripts\activate.bat

it may fail with a rather unclear error that states:

Path not found

without further indications.

The trick is that activate.bat(/deactivate.bat) scripts try to save(/restore) the %PROMPT% variable with this syntax:

...
set _OLD_VIRTUAL_PROMPT=%PROMPT%
...
set PROMPT=(venv) %PROMPT%
...

It can be fixed with this syntax:

...
set "_OLD_VIRTUAL_PROMPT=%PROMPT%"
...
set "PROMPT=(venv) %PROMPT%"
...

now it shows:

[W10-MY_COMPUTER | W10-MY_COMPUTER\JOHNDOE]
15/09/2022 20:31
F:\
> venv\Scripts\activate.bat


(venv)
[W10-MY_COMPUTER | W10-MY_COMPUTER\JOHNDOE]
15/09/2022 20:31
F:\
>

score 0 · Answer 27 · answered Aug 12 '23 at 11:54

I faced the same error in Visual Studio Code as execution policy from Microsoft does not allow to run scripts. open

Windows powershell as administrator as suggested then write command

 Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope Process

press A to yess for All. This works for me

score -1 · Answer 28 · answered Dec 12 '19 at 06:21

-1

If you are using windows OS then in Gitbash terminal use the following command $source venv/Scripts/activate. This will help you to enter the virtual environment.

answered Dec 12 '19 at 06:21

Debjoti Chandra

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score -1 · Answer 29 · answered Feb 26 '20 at 11:58

-1

Open your project using VS code editor .
Change the default shell in vs code terminal to git bash.
now your project is open with bash console and right path, put "source venv\Scripts\activate" in Windows

answered Feb 26 '20 at 11:58

shreya

1

score -1 · Answer 30 · answered May 05 '20 at 07:34

-1

Navigate to your virtualenv folder eg ..\project1_env> Then type

source scripts/activate

eg ..\project1_env>source scripts/activate

answered May 05 '20 at 07:34

Amanga Emmanuel

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score -1 · Answer 31 · answered Oct 01 '20 at 10:26

-1

The best way is, using backward slahes and using .bat at the end of activate

C:\Users>your_env_name\Scripts\activate.bat

answered Oct 01 '20 at 10:26

Ahmad Waqar

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score -1 · Answer 32 · answered Oct 09 '20 at 03:09

:: location of bat file
::C:\Users\gaojia\Dropbox\Projects\free_return\venv\Scripts\activate.bat 
:: location of the cmd bat file and the ipython notebook
::C:\Users\gaojia\Dropbox\Projects\free_return\scripts\pre_analysis
source ..\..\venv\Scripts\activate
PAUSE
jupyter nbconvert --to html --execute consumer_response_DID.ipynb
PAUSE

Above is my bat file through which I try to execute an ipython notebook. But the cmd window gives me nothing and shut down instantly, any suggestion why would this happen?

score -1 · Answer 33 · answered Jan 08 '21 at 22:02

-1

If you are using windows, just run .\Scripts\activate. Mind that the backslash plays the trick!

answered Jan 08 '21 at 22:02

Zidane

1
1

score -2 · Answer 34 · answered Mar 07 '22 at 14:45

-2

It's been a while without usign Django, so when I got back to my old project I run into the same issue on Windows 10 and this worked for me:

venv/Scripts/activate

answered Mar 07 '22 at 14:45

Cyebukayire

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score -2 · Answer 35 · answered Apr 28 '22 at 07:37

Open powershell as admin and paste this "set-executionpolicy remotesigned", then go back to where you tried to run the activate of the venv and it should work :)

Link to the article that explains more in detail: https://www.stanleyulili.com/powershell/solution-to-running-scripts-is-disabled-on-this-system-error-on-powershell/

Issue with virtualenv - cannot activate

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