venv

Ie: you need to sort it out on the moment you build venv, and shipping venv directory is not correct.

Virtualenv installs some.so files in its thing, so venv directory is tightly coupled with the python binary it runs.

I personally prefer virtualenv, as I can navigate around the filesystem and open ipython from anywhere within the venv.

Personally I enjoy having a few bits installed under ~/opt/py-venv and simply add ~/opt/py-ven/bin to my path.

In Python 3.4 the venv module installs pip by default as well.

I usually do this just by cd'ing to the project directory, which has the virtualenv inside it and running './venv/bin/python'.

But why go all the way with the python venv etc?

Having pip and venv bundled with the standard distribution is convenient.

Except it doesn't work: * I need root do create the venv in /usr/local.

Because if not run in a container, you should put things that upgrade Requests in a venv at least otherwise you may end up breaking apt.

As I tried to use Python's virtualenv (venv), I went down the rabbit hole of a broken mess that was left in Ubuntu.

Having said that, I've also worked a lot with slimmer environments - venv on top of the native OS - with reasonable success.

I have a small utility[1] to magic that to "vpython" and "vipython" and "venv pip", respectively.