Virtualenvwrapper creates virtual env with wrong python interpreter

[valentingregoire]

In Ubuntu 22.04 using zsh, I get this weird behavior. I have pyenv installed with a Python 3.8.10 shim installed. I have this config in my .zshrc:

#virtualenvwrapper
export WORKON_HOME=~/.virtualenvs
export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=~/.pyenv/shims/python
source $HOME/.local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

The shim is pointing to the correct location:

❯ ~/.pyenv/shims/python --version
Python 3.8.10

Yet, when I create a virtual environment, I receive this output (this is only a fragment):

❯ mkvirtualenv a
created virtual environment CPython3.10.6.final.0-64 in 76ms
...

When I activate the environment and ask for the python version, I get this:

❯ python --version
Python 3.10.6

When I debug the virtualenwvrapper.sh, I see that the very beginning of the script is fetching the location of the python installation. When I put an echo after that little block of code, I see this as an output:

before setting VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON: /home/valentin/.pyenv/shims/python
after setting VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON: /home/valentin/.pyenv/shims/python

I don't understand that my virtual envs are pointing tot Python 3.10.6 while everything is pointing to 3.8.10. What am I doing wrong?

[dhellmann]

The most important factor is where virtualenv itself is installed. What does $VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_VIRTUALENV point to? What does "which virtualenv" report?

[valentingregoire]

When I echo $VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_VIRTUALENV, the output is: virtualenv. When I do which virtualenv, I get:

/home/valentin/.local/bin/virtualenv

When I do which virtualenv, I get:

/home/valentin/.local/bin/virtualenv
/home/valentin/.pyenv/shims/virtualenv

So for some reason, there is an installation virtualenv in my .local/bin folder. There is no python, python3, pip nor pip3 command to be found in .local/bin.

pip and pip3 only can be found in my shim folder. So I don't know how to remove the virtualenv installation in the .local/bin folder. Or is that not the approach to go?

[dhellmann]

Usually things end up in ~/.local if you use the --user flag to pip install. Running pip uninstall virtualenv may remove that file, along with the rest of the package (it should show you what it is going to remove). After doing that, you could then install virtualenv using the python interpreter you want to have it use.

[valentingregoire]

After uninstalling virtualenv and installing it with --user, it seems like my environments are working perfectly. Even though I had installed it from the shims (without --user), still the virtualenv ended up in the wrong location. Thanks for the help!!