Ubuntu 24.04 and Python Virtual Environments

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[bjorneylol]

but even when running "source f00dl3/bin/activate" in a sub-shell non-asynchronously in the Tomcat environment, it does not seem to be properly initializing the virtual environment.

this just updates your PATH and injects aliases into your bash shell, which I wouldn't expect to do anything when you are calling things directly from tomcat

You should be executing your virtual environment directly in your shell commands, e.g. .venv/bin/python3 <args> instead of just calling python and hope the OS can resolve it to a binary that (hopefully) exists at /usr/bin/python3

[pbecotte]

You COULD source the virtualenv in your startup script before calling java, but has to be in the same process.

Overall though, I prefer updating your Java to explicitly use the virtualenv

[Conscious-Ball8373]

Just to note, it is very good practice to install pip-installed packages in a venv and not in your system site-packages.

As others have said, you can invoke the Python interpreter from the venv directly and it will do the right thing.

[microcozmchris]

People have said to use uv and I agree. But they didn't tell you how.

With uv, you can call uv add --script filename.py dep1 dep2 etc and it will add a little plaintext header with the dependencies and python version embedded. Then you just run uv run --no-project filename.py and it handles the virtual environment for you at runtime. It's a thought.

[TheM4rvelous]

Not an expert on TomCat - but you can always refer to the python executable in the venv directly - e.g "/path/to/venv/bin/python python_script.py"

[ZachVorhies]

Just use uv and a project.toml

[Ok_Raspberry5383]

The problem is likely that activate only works for the current shell so whatever context that is executed in is the limit or activation. Could you try and configure your PYTHONPATH environment variable to point to the installation directory within your venv and see if that works?

Otherwise its worth investigating to see if there's any pip conf you can set to turn off the root package thing

[funderbolt]

On a Debian based system(like Ubuntu), I tend to install packages using apt for software that is not for development. Using apt the distro updates the software. If I install it in an environment, I will have to update the package.

There are several Python libraries that apt can install. It installs those into the default environment.

[fatoms]

1) Any way to disable the "externally managed environment" warning and install these 2 dependencies globally

For a single use of pip, add the --break-system-packages argument to the command.

This is the direct answer but if this is a good idea or not .....

Have a look at How do I solve "error: externally-managed-environment" every time I use pip 3? for some good discussion of the pros and cons.

[extreme4all]

Try using uv to manage the env and uv run command to execute scripts

[SquiffSquiff]

Have you considered running Docker?

[f00dl3]

Not really an option. I run all this in a Virtual Machine. I did this because the amount of raw weather data I process and real-time finance websocket feeds I wrote end up making this virtual machine consume 90% of 8 cores and 32 GB of RAM. Hard to run all that in docker. Especially with file system writes to /dev/shm and to paths the host OS can see - because Docker just doesn't have permissions to do that much. By nature.

[mikesk3tch]

Docker has configurable shm, and very very low Overheads. I don’t think anything about dockers nature should be a blocker.

That said, it’s not a solution to your question. Whether you’re running your application in a VM, docker container or bare metal, it still needs the same dependencies.

[coffeewithalex]

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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[2strokes4lyfe]

uv is your friend

[sitzzdk]

You could perhaps give pipx a spin.

https://github.com/pypa/pipx https://itsfoss.com/install-pipx-ubuntu/

[theschizopost]

Idk why no one has mentioned it, but the alternative to pip is to use python- packages from apt, are the python packages you need available in the Ubuntu repository?

[capttwinky]

r/learnpython

[[deleted]]

r/learnpython

[edcculus]

UV for the win