Why Virtual Environment Manager

My Problems with Python Virtual Environments

alias venv='virtual environment'

Using venvs to install isolated packages for development is the easiest package management solution in Python. It's not featureful, but it'll get you your beloved packages!

python -m venv <PATH> command creates a venv at PATH. Depending on personal preference, some (including me) put the venvs in a hidden folder like .virtualenvs in user directory, some put it in a hidden file in the root of the project that uses it. Read more about venvs here

venv sizes become an issue when I don't pay attention

I like a known, easily accessible folder for the reusability of venvs for AI / data science projects which use roughly the same set of packages. That's especially convenient for deep learning packages that takes around ~10GB disk space.

But it is a management nightmare; I forget what I named them or what was in that venv. I end up with near duplicates because I use one odd package for a project.

50GBs wasted? In this economy? Unacceptable.

It's Rust levels of disk space waste to create standalone venvs. I only have a 512GB SSD to play with until I prioritize digital storage over coffee equipment.

Let me show you what I'm talking about.

It's annoying to manage them

To inspect a venv I have to do the following:

# remember the venv name type the long path of activation script
# also it's on ...\Scripts\activate on Windows. that's annoying too
# even if I alias it, I still have to remember the names
$ source ~/.virtualenvs/da/bin/activate

# list the packages
$ pip list

# check a package
$ pip show <package>

which is alright when I am already in an activated environment. But that venv was da (for data analysis) and it doesn't have deep learning packages. Now repeat the same steps for... whatever I named that deep learning venv. Hmm I seem to have a venv for image analysis but also for computer vision too... which one has the most correct libraries...

It's shame really, it's a problem I brought upon myself. But it's engineering if I solve it.

Solution

My venvs reside in a known place and I want to display some basic information about them. All the information is available in the venv, hidden in some directories and files. A simple terminal interface, file manipulation and parsing should do the trick. Rust is perfect for this.

Actually Python is perfect-er but let's ignore it for now

I'll use ratatui for the interface. I just love TUI apps, looks amazing and so fun to use. This project fits perfectly for this kind of thing.

Features I want

• Finding venvs in a directory.
• Searching for venvs recursively.
• Showing the path and size of venv, installed packages, number of packages
• Showing the size of package, its dependencies, number of dependencies, versions and summary
• Activation commands depending on OS and shell, printing requirements.txt
• Must work on Linux & Windows.
• Automated releases on Github via Github Actions.