Server Cobra Ubuntu, Servers, Python, and Django

Bash Alias for Python/Virtualenv

If you are writing Python apps, you should definitely be using virtualenv. It creates an isolated virtual environment (hence the name), where you can install Python apps without affecting the rest of the apps on your machine. For example, if I have a website that relies on Django 1.2, and other sites that rely on Django 1.3, I can put them in virtualenvs and just install the correct package versions in each. This can also be applied to running different Python versions per project as well, such as 2.5 for one and 3.0 in another. Yet another great use of virtualenvs is testing your code in multiple version of Python.

Sold yet? Good! The only thing I find tedious about virtualenvs is constantly typing long commands to activate a virtualenv. The common command is:

source ~/programming/project/bin/activate

That's more than I want to type each time. So let's make it an alias! Simply replace PROJECT with the name of your project. Note: This assumes you place all your projects in your home directory under a directory called "programming". Modify that to meet your needs.

echo 'alias PROJECT="source $HOME/programming/PROJECT/bin/activate" ' >> ~/.bash_aliases

# Or if you want to also move to the directory:
echo 'alias PROJECT="source ~/programming/PROJECT/bin/activate; cd ~/programming/PROJECT" ' >> ~/.bash_aliases

bash

Well that's pretty cool. Now you just type whatever your project name is, and the alias will activate the virtualenv so you can get to work. If you use the second option, it will also move you into the project directory. What if you have 30+ Python projects, like me? Do you really want to write an alias for each one, and create a new one each time you make a new project? I don't, so I'll write a simple function to take care of it. Put this in your ~/.bash_aliases (or the bottom of ~/.bashrc if you really want).

# Python virtualenv
SRC_DIRECTORY="$HOME/programming"
venv () {
        source $SRC_DIRECTORY/$1/bin/activate;
        cd $SRC_DIRECTORY/$1;

# Then run "bash" again to reload the file, and you're done!
}

To run it, simply type "venv PROJECT" into bash. It will activate the environment and move you to the project directory. You can change SRC_DIRECTORY to whatever you want.

Josh Gachnang

Josh Gachnang is a small business consultant with 5 years of experience in developing IT systems. His specialties include moving IT infrastructure to the cloud, standard and mobile web development using Python and Django, and promoting with social media.

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