veman 0.3.0

Virtual environment manager for venv

veman - Virtual Environment Manager

veman is a lightweight virtual environment manager using venv. With veman it is easier to manage multiple environments.

Note: veman is under active development and currently supports Bash in FreeBSD, Linux & macOS.

veman aims to be a simple manager for Python's venv package. The intention of veman is to be a comprehensive companion tool for venv, facilitating the creation/activation & management of virtual environments, with some extra features that aids development with Python.

veman is primarily developed for Linux & macOS. veman does not yet support Windows. Windows compatibility will most likely be implemented in a future version but it is currently not a prioritised feature.

• GitHub: https://github.com/tranbom/veman
• GitLab: https://gitlab.com/tranbom/veman
• PyPi: https://pypi.org/project/veman
• Documentation: https://tranbom.io/veman/

Installation

Install via pipx: pipx install veman

Using pipx is the preferred method to install veman.

Installing with pip is not supported when the Python environment is externally managed (for example in Debian 12), see PEP-668 for more information.

The default installation directory used by pipx is ~/.local/bin which needs to be in your PATH. Update the PATH manually or run pipx ensurepath.

Dependencies

• Python >=3.9
• venv

Installation instructions for Debian 12 and distributions based on Debian 12

Install pip, pipx & venv from the Debian repository:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3-pip python3-venv pipx

Install veman with pipx and update PATH (if necessary):
pipx install veman
pipx ensurepath

Usage

Create a new virtual environment

veman create or veman create <environment-name>

Use -a or --activate after the create command to automatically activate the venv after creation.

Examples:
veman create djangoenv
veman create -a flaskenv
veman create --activate testenv1

Activate a virtual environment

veman activate or veman activate <environment-name>

Example: veman activate djangoenv

Deactivate a virtual environment

deactivate (inside an active venv)

List created virtual environments

veman list

Delete a virtual environment

veman delete or veman delete <environment-name>

Example: veman delete djangoenv

Create and activate a temporary environment

Create a temporary environment which will be deleted immediately when deactivating the environment.

veman temp

To exit & delete the temporary environment type deactivate

veman supports creating multiple temporary environments simultaneously.

Bash history

veman creates a separate bash history file for each venv.

The history of bash commands executed inside an activated venv is saved in the root folder of the venv as .veman_history and everytime a virtual environment is activated the bash history will be restored.

The bash builtin history will print the environments history when a venv is activated and when the virtual environment is deactivated history will automatically switch back to using the regular bash history file (usually ~/.bash_history).

veman also has its own history command which can be used without having to activate a venv, making it easy to find which commands have been run in different environments.

veman history <environment-name> will list the bash history for a single venv.

veman history --all will print the bash history for all venvs, which can be useful to quickly find a command in the history across environments. Currently there is no specific order of the venvs in which the history is printed.

The --verbose option will print some additional details, such as venv name and line number.

Upgrade venv

Various components of a venv can be upgraded with veman. Running veman upgrade <environment-name> will upgrade the following:

• Core dependencies (pip + setuptools)
• Python (will be upgraded to the python version running the veman command)
• veman scripts

It is also possible to select which components to upgrade using any of the following options when running veman upgrade:

• --deps - Upgrade core dependencies
• --python - Upgrade Python
• --scripts - Upgrade veman scripts

Upgrading the veman scripts can be useful when a new version of veman has been released to ensure compatibility of new veman features in a venv created with an older version of veman.

All managed venvs can be upgraded with the option --all:

veman upgrade --all

Full list of available commands and options

• Documentation: https://tranbom.io/veman/

Notes

veman sources ~/.bashrc in Linux & FreeBSD. veman is mainly tested in distributions that are derivatives of Debian which automatically sources /etc/bash.bashrc.

veman sources /etc/profile and ~/.bash_profile in macOS.

Planned features

• Connect a managed venv with a specific git repository (e.g., automatic cd on activate)
• User defined commands to run on activate (python and/or shell)
• Compatibility with zsh & more shells
• Command to add local paths to .pth-file in venv
• Configuration file with settings for veman (e.g., path to env directory)
• Adopt existing unmanaged venvs
• Auto-update managed venvs after veman has been upgraded

License

GPL-3.0-only