virtualenv using incorrect sys.path

Question

Things were working fine a moment ago. I have no idea what I did to piss off virtualenv, but it's acting very strangely now. Any help is appreciated.

When making a virtualenv, I use this command:

virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python3 venv

Now I see that the packages I install using pip install package are not being loaded by python. They are installed correctly by pip, into the venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages directory, however the python in my virtualenv is not looking through that directory for packages.

in Python:

import sys
sys.path
['', '/usr/lib/python3.4', '/usr/lib/python3.4/plat-x86_64-linux-gnu', '/usr/lib/python3.4/lib-dynload', '/usr/local/lib/python3.4/dist-packages', '/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages']

This is wrong! It's using the wrong paths, and it should at least include

/myhomedir/venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages

So I can import my packages.

In fact, in Python opened in a virtualenv:

import sys
sys.path.append("/myhomedir/venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages")
import package

works!!

But I don't want to have to manually append this path every time I use Python. I did something to make sys.path very angry, and I don't know what that is.

I just sudo apt-get updated and sudo apt-get upgraded to make sure it wasn't a conflict... no dice.

Possibly related:

I've noticed that my virtualenv command outputs the following line:

Using base prefix '/usr'

I don't recall this happening before. However even when I do virtualenv venv, (without specifying Python version, and that output does not appear) my sys.path is still wrong and packages don't load.

Anyone thoughts? Help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Solved the problem... posting result if anyone else has the same issue. A PICNIC error of the highest degree.

In my .bashrc file, I had an alias python=/usr/bin/python3

Well when my virtualenv tried to execute python, it was re-routing to /usr/bin instead of using it's internal python.

• Rick: Two days of searching and Q&A to solve this. Thank you!
• MLNN: Is there anyway to make the environment uses internal Python without having to export the python path every time?
• shloosh: @LongLe Yes, just add "alias python=python3 " and "alias pip=pip3" to your ~/.bashrc and create a symbolic link from /usr/bin/python to /usr/bin/python3 "sudo ln -sfn /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python"
• Dominic M.: I have the same issue, but my ~/.bashrc doesn't have that alias, so I can't remove it.. My virtualenv is using /usr/bin/python3
• aydow: you can check if you python has been aliased somewhere by alias | grep python and then remove that alias by unalias python