The right tool for the right job
Python is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. It has a large user base, and is often used in web development, scientific computing, and data analysis. However, Python does not come pre-installed on all systems, and it can be difficult to set up the right environment for using it. This article will describe how to set up a decent Python environment on MacOS.
Setup Python Pyenv Environment
In this article, we are going to learn how to set up a Python Pyenv environment. Pyenv is a tool that allows you to manage multiple Python versions on your system. It is an alternative to virtualenv and pipenv.
Pyenv requires a few components in order to work properly.
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brew install pyenv
In my case I needed to install Xcode for the CommandLineTools
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xcode-select --install
sudo xcode-select --switch /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools # this is optional if you encounter further issues
You can insert this into your “~/.zprofile”. If you work with bash, you just insert it into your “~/.bash_profile”. If it does not exist, you can just create one. It should work out of the box. Here you can see my .zprofile:
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export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"
export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"
if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then
eval "$(pyenv init -)"
fi
Now you can list all possible python version that can be installed
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pyenv install -l
In contrast, with the versions command you can check which versions are locally already available.
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pyenv versions
In our case, we don’t have a Python version available from pyenv.
That’s why we need to choose a version and install it. In my case I chose Python version 3.10.4.
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pyenv install 3.10.4
After you have downloaded it you can test the comfort of Pyenv. You can set a global and a local python version.
Check out your global version first and ensure that it is not the same as we just downloaded. Now you can change your directory to a test folder and activate your local python version with
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pyenv local 3.10.4
Start your python console and check your version. Now you can see your last downloaded python version in your console.
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Python 3.10.4 (main, Jun 7 2022, 11:24:12) [Clang 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.27.3)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
With this validated cross check, you can now set your global python version easily.
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pyenv global <version>
With this prerequisite we are now ready to change our python versions on the fly. In my next blog post you can read more about the installation of a dependency resolver and virtual environment manager called poetry.
resources
Many thanks to
