Virtualenv: The executable python does not exist

Created on 18 Aug 2014 · 4Comments · Source: pypa/virtualenv

Running virtualenv myvenv --python=python fails with "The executable python (from --python=python) does not exist" even if python is on the PATH:

$ which python
/c/Python27/python

The issue is wrong executable detection on Windows. python is equivalent to python.exe on Windows but this is not recognized by virtualenv. It works only if you use virtualenv myvenv --python=python.exe.

Source

schlamar

Most helpful comment

FYI, it works if you do virtualenv --python=3.4 myenv or virtualenv --python=2.7 myenv.

ionelmc on 5 Jan 2015

👍6

All 4 comments

FYI, it works if you do virtualenv --python=3.4 myenv or virtualenv --python=2.7 myenv.

ionelmc on 5 Jan 2015

👍6

Also works with --python=2 or --python=3

ionelmc on 5 Jan 2015

I see little point in the user supplying --python=python as that's (in effect) the default. And --python-C:\Python34\python seems odd - why not just add the .exe? That's not to say this isn't somewhat odd behaviour, I'm just not sure it's a major issue in practice.

Looking at sashahart/vex#11 I'm not clear if you are saying there that vex passes --python=python or you did so. If the former, it probably shouldn't, and I'd say that's a bug in vex. If the latter then I'd class this as user error (you should have omitted the --python argument).

pfmoore on 5 Jan 2015

i had tried your both codes @ionelmc but still its not working

horler@horler-HP-245-G5-Notebook-PC:~/python_udemy/PyPI$ virtualenv testnv
The path python2 (from --python=python2) does not exist
horler@horler-HP-245-G5-Notebook-PC:~/python_udemy/PyPI$ virtualenv --python=3.4 myenv
The path 3.4 (from --python=3.4) does not exist
horler@horler-HP-245-G5-Notebook-PC:~/python_udemy/PyPI$ virtualenv --python=3 myenv
The path 3 (from --python=3) does not exist
horler@horler-HP-245-G5-Notebook-PC:~/python_udemy/PyPI$ virtualenv --python=2 myenv
The path 2 (from --python=2) does not exist
horler@horler-HP-245-G5-Notebook-PC:~/python_udemy/PyPI$