Python-Venv-faq.md

Python Virtual Environment FAQ

Is there a way to use the same virtualenv on both Windows and Mac OS?

Answer found in Stack Overflow.

There are several reasons why venvs cannot be shared across OSes:

• Some packages contains C extensions, and the OS' .dlls are not compatible with each other.
• venvs contain scripts with hardcoded paths. Windows and Linux paths are different.

The following is a workaround:

1. pip freeze all libraries to a requirements.txt file.

pip freeze > requirements.txt

2. Create the venv on each OS:

python -m venv env
source env/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt  # Install all the libs.

Note: To keep similar venvs in the same folder, another option is to create the venvs with different names.
For example, you will have the resulting tree structure:

Folder/
    - virtualenv/
        - Include
        - Lib
        - Scripts
    - venv/
       - bin
       - include
       - lib
    - pythonscript.py
    - requirements.txt