TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable

Ubuntu: 16.04.3 Python: 3.5.2 Pipenv: 9.0.3

I was trying to initialize pipenv in a directory that happened to contain a file copy.py.

mkdir test
cd test
touch copy.py
pipenv --three

This fails with the following stack trace:

ubuntu@ip-172-30-1-145:~/test$ pipenv --three
Creating a virtualenv for this project…
Using /usr/bin/python3 to create virtualenv…
⠋Already using interpreter /usr/bin/python3
Using base prefix '/usr'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.5/runpy.py", line 184, in _run_module_as_main
    "__main__", mod_spec)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.5/runpy.py", line 85, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 2328, in <module>
    main()
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 713, in main
    symlink=options.symlink)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 925, in create_environment
    site_packages=site_packages, clear=clear, symlink=symlink))
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1132, in install_python
    copy_required_modules(home_dir, symlink)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1062, in copy_required_modules
    dst_filename = change_prefix(filename, dst_prefix)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1036, in change_prefix
    (filename, prefixes)
AssertionError: Filename /home/ubuntu/test/copy.py does not start with any of these prefixes: ['/usr', '/usr']

Virtualenv location:
Creating a Pipfile for this project…
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/bin/pipenv", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(cli())
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 722, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 697, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 1043, in invoke
    return Command.invoke(self, ctx)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 895, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 535, in invoke
    return callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/decorators.py", line 17, in new_func
    return f(get_current_context(), *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pipenv/cli.py", line 1724, in cli
    ensure_project(three=three, python=python, warn=True, site_packages=site_packages)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pipenv/cli.py", line 642, in ensure_project
    ensure_pipfile(validate=validate)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pipenv/cli.py", line 337, in ensure_pipfile
    project.create_pipfile(python=python)
  File "/home/ubuntu/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pipenv/project.py", line 406, in create_pipfile
    data[u'requires'] = {'python_version': python_version(python)[:len('2.7')]}
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable

If I remove copy.py pipenv works fine. I initially discovered this on OS X, but tried it out on a brand new Ubuntu EC2 instance to verify the same behavior.

[jtratner]

Thanks for opening this ticket, this is actually a virtualenv bug, not a pipenv bug 😕 (if you switch out virtualenv --python=python3 myenv for the pipenv install --three line you’ll see a similar error)

So probably better to open it over here - https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv

I’m going to close this for now.

[irving-ssk]

It is not about whose bug it is, it is about users’ ability or inability to use the product. Virtualenv does work on its own and works reliably. So if PIPENV claims to be an advanced tool, but needs virtualenv to change, it is a no go. Either you make it work with existing virtualenv, or create you own version of virtualenv (perhaps forked and patched original one, whatever) - otherwise the product is virtually useless. At least for our company.