pipenv only works in an activated shell

Reproducible example:

$ python3 -m venv env
$ env/bin/pip install pipenv
<snip>
$ env/bin/pipenv install pyramid
Creating a Pipfile for this project...
Creating a virtualenv for this project...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "env/bin/pipenv", line 11, in <module>
    load_entry_point('pipenv==4.1.4', 'console_scripts', 'pipenv')()
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 722, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 697, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 1066, in invoke
    return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 895, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 535, in invoke
    return callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/cli.py", line 801, in install
    ensure_project(three=three, python=python)
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/cli.py", line 155, in ensure_project
    ensure_virtualenv(three=three, python=python)
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/cli.py", line 135, in ensure_virtualenv
    do_create_virtualenv(three=three, python=python)
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/cli.py", line 388, in do_create_virtualenv
    c = delegator.run(cmd, block=False)
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/delegator.py", line 247, in run
    c.run(block=block, binary=binary)
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/delegator.py", line 146, in run
    s = PopenSpawn(self._popen_args, **pexpect_kwargs)
  File "/Users/michael/work/oss/pipenv/env/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/pexpect/popen_spawn.py", line 45, in __init__
    self.proc = subprocess.Popen(cmd, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/michael/.pyenv/versions/3.6.1/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 707, in __init__
    restore_signals, start_new_session)
  File "/Users/michael/.pyenv/versions/3.6.1/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 1326, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'pew'

Expected: A new pipenv virtualenv is created with pyramid installed and the pipfile updated similar to how things work if I run:

$ python3 -m venv env
$ env/bin/pip install pipenv
$ source env/bin/activate
(env) $ pipenv install pyramid

This is a common problem with programs that shell out without activating the virtualenv but it does make things a bit more difficult for people who do not need to activate 99% of the time and prefer being explicit about what python they are using. There are several workarounds but one is to prepend the virtualenv’s bin/scripts folder to the path before shelling out via os.path.join(os.environ('VIRTUAL_ENV'], bin_or_scripts).

[mmerickel]

As someone who has contributed to pipsi and watches its repo and uses / maintains a fork I can tell you that it’s almost entirely unmaintained… I’m not sure that’s a great installation method to recommend to people. It hasn’t had a release in over 2 years and the get-pipsi.py script installs the version from pypi, not the one from the repository. On top of that those installation instructions are currently semi-broken if you don’t have the virtualenv command on your path. It’s of course installed into the python that I’m using to run pipenv, but the virtualenv command should again be found relative to the python that’s running, not the system command (similar issue as this one with pew).

Note below the usage of .local/bin/pew from pipsi. I know it’s hard to get this all isolated when using subprocesses but I maintain that it’s an important thing to do to make a tool that’s easily installable without a bunch of assumptions on the installed environment. pipsi is able to find virtualenv but later pipenv/pew cannot

$ pipsi install pew
$ pipsi install pipenv
$ pipenv install
Creating a virtualenv for this project...
⠋Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/michael/.local/bin/pew", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(pew())
  File "/Users/michael/.local/venvs/pew/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pew/pew.py", line 737, in pew
    return command(sys.argv[2:])
  File "/Users/michael/.local/venvs/pew/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pew/pew.py", line 253, in new_cmd
    args.requirements, rest)
  File "/Users/michael/.local/venvs/pew/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pew/pew.py", line 215, in mkvirtualenv
    check_call(["virtualenv", envname] + rest, cwd=str(workon_home))
  File "/Users/michael/.pyenv/versions/3.6.1/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 286, in check_call
    retcode = call(*popenargs, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/michael/.pyenv/versions/3.6.1/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 267, in call
    with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as p:
  File "/Users/michael/.pyenv/versions/3.6.1/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 707, in __init__
    restore_signals, start_new_session)
  File "/Users/michael/.pyenv/versions/3.6.1/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 1326, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'virtualenv'

Virtualenv location:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/michael/.local/bin/pipenv", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(cli())
  File "/Users/michael/.local/venvs/pipenv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 722, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/michael/.local/venvs/pipenv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 697, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
  File "/Users/michael/.local/venvs/pipenv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 1066, in invoke
    return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
  File "/Users/michael/.local/venvs/pipenv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 895, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
  File "/Users/michael/.local/venvs/pipenv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 535, in invoke
    return callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/michael/.local/venvs/pipenv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/cli.py", line 1057, in shell
    with open(activate_this) as f:
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/bin/activate_this.py'

[kennethreitz]

@mmerickel patches welcome!