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So I have a virtualenv folder called venv for my python project.

I can run:

venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

Which installs all requirements I need for the project except one, M2Crypto. The only way to install it is through apt-get:

apt-get install python-m2crypto

How can I then add this package installed through apt to venv folder?

Richard Knop
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6 Answers6

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--system-site-packages

gives access to the global site-packages modules to the virtual environment.

you could do:

$ sudo apt-get install python-m2crypto
$ virtualenv env --system-site-packages

... and you would then have access to m2crypto (along with all other system-wide installed packages) inside your virtualenv.

Corey Goldberg
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  • As long as you are careful to only install packages you want shared globally in to the base python install, this is the way to go. – Silas Ray Dec 21 '12 at 15:14
  • But then what is the point of using a virtual environment if it has access to global site packages? – Richard Knop Dec 21 '12 at 16:03
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    Richard Knop, so you can install additional packages without root in your own virtualenv, and not mess with the system python. – Corey Goldberg Dec 21 '12 at 19:03
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    If your virtual environment is already setup and you don't want to re-create it and you're using, or open to using, _virtualenvwrapper_ to manage your virtual environments, you can add access to `--system-site-packages` ex post facto by running the [`toggleglobalsitepackages` command](http://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.org/en/latest/command_ref.html#toggleglobalsitepackages). – Kinsa Apr 09 '14 at 19:27
  • @RichardKnop what is the point? here is an example. i have multiple projects different libraries but i use `auto_py_to_exe` for all of them – Lucem Sep 01 '19 at 08:55
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What I did after all:

cp -R /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/M2Crypto /home/richard/hello-project/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/
cp -R /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/OpenSSL /home/richard/hello-project/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/
Richard Knop
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    This should be built into virtual env – Sindarus Jun 15 '18 at 13:48
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    yes, I wonder if there is a virualenv method of installing into the environment the system-wide packages installed onto the host after that environment was already created. – Diego Feb 27 '19 at 15:49
27

Real simple solution.

In the virtual environment directory, edit the file pyvenv.cfg. Set the parameter include-system-site-packages = true, and save the file. The globally installed modules will appear the next time you activate (source venv/bin/activate) your environment.

It can be verified via pip list.

Enjoy!

roshnet
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    This is the only solution I could find that did not require sudo access. My issue was that I needed to import a pre-installed global package (which had required sudo) in a virtualenv in which I wanted to install additional packages in editable mode. This wasn't possible when creating the virtualenv with `--system-site-packages`. So this helped me a lot, thank you! – Brenden Petersen May 22 '19 at 01:21
  • The appropriate solution for my scenario, which is a pretty standard one. – Alejandro QA Dec 15 '21 at 12:03
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toggleglobalsitepackages will toggle access to the system-wide site-packages.

Note: You need to pip install virtualenvwrapper to get this command; the vanilla virtualenv doesn't include it. With virtualenvwrapper you also get the very useful mkvirtualenv and rmvirtualenv commands, among others.

Will
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    only if you install virtualenvwrapper. otherwise you get `toggleglobalsitepackages: command not found` – szeitlin Dec 28 '15 at 23:55
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    as of today, it is now `toggleglobalsitepackages` – eduncan911 Nov 16 '16 at 14:07
  • `virtualenvwrapper` is installed but I still get `toggleglobalsitepackages: command not found`. Those virtualenv folks really needed to design this better. Seems like a basic necessary feature IMHO. – Shailen Dec 01 '18 at 01:34
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venv/bin/pip install -I M2Crypto

The -I forces it to also be installed into the virtualenv, even if it's already globally installed.

Amber
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  • I will try that. Why is it not documented in output from pip --help. – Richard Knop Dec 21 '12 at 15:05
  • It's documented in `pip help install`. The `-I` flag is specific to the `install` command and thus not shown in the global flags list (there are many other command-specific flags). – Amber Dec 21 '12 at 15:06
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    Thanks. This is not working very well. You see, M2Crypto can actually be installed through pip but there is a bug in the library which makes the installation fail on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. They released a patch but it's not working for me... So when I try your command, it tries to download the library from pip repository and install it instead of just copying the apt package. – Richard Knop Dec 21 '12 at 15:11
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    In that case, you'll probably want to use `--system-site-packages` for this one instance. – Amber Dec 21 '12 at 15:20
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The only way to transfer packages locally from one environment or global to the other virtual environment is Copying the the "Lib"folder or the package folder with all its contents from the environment to the other environment you want the package to work

If you don't know it's location search for it within the environment folder using file explorer

Lib folder contains all the installed packages of the environment

Rabbi kindalo
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