microvenv 2023.0.0

A minimal re-implementation of Python's venv module

microvenv

Create a minimal virtual environment.

This module is meant for when the venv module has been removed from the standard library by your Python distribution. Because venv is not available on PyPI and is developed in the stdlib, it is not possible to install it using pip or simply copy the code and expect it to work with older versions of Python. This module then attempts to be that portable alternative for creating virtual environments.

In general, though, using the venv module should be preferred and this module is only used as a fallback.

Usage

python microvenv.py [path=".venv"]

If an argument is provided to the script, it is used as the path to create the virtual environment in. Otherwise, the virtual environment is created in .venv.

For programmatic usage, use the runpy module to execute the script:

runpy.run_path("microvenv.py", run_name="__main__")

The contents of microvenv.py is also small enough to be passed in via the -c flag to python.

Differences compared to the venv module

The module operates similarly to py -m venv --symlinks --without-pip .venv, except that:

• There are no activation scripts (execute python in the virtual environment directly).
• Windows is not supported.