Can't install via pip with Virtualenv

Question

Below is the error I get when I run pip:

serkan$ rm -r mysite serkan$ pwd /Users/serkan/Desktop/Python Folder serkan$ virtualenv mysite  New python executable in mysite/bin/python Installing setuptools............done. Installing pip...............done. serkan$ source mysite/bin/activate (mysite)serkan$ pip install pinax -bash: /Users/serkan/Desktop/Python Folder/mysite/bin/pip: "/Users/serkan/Desktop/Python: bad interpreter: No such file or directory (mysite)serkan$ python pip install pinax python: can't open file 'pip': [Errno 2] No such file or directory (mysite)serkan$ python pip install Pinax python: can't open file 'pip': [Errno 2] No such file or directory (mysite)serkan$ python pip install Pinax python: can't open file 'pip': [Errno 2] No such file or directory (mysite)serkan$ python pip install Pinax python: can't open file 'pip': [Errno 2] No such file or directory (mysite)serkan$ python pip  python: can't open file 'pip': [Errno 2] No such file or directory (mysite)serkan$ pip -bash: /Users/serkan/Desktop/Python Folder/mysite/bin/pip: "/Users/serkan/Desktop/Python: bad interpreter: No such file or directory (mysite)serkan$ pip install Pinax -bash: /Users/serkan/Desktop/Python Folder/mysite/bin/pip: "/Users/serkan/Desktop/Python: bad interpreter: No such file or directory (mysite)serkan$  

Answer 1

Create your virtualenv environment within a path without spaces. This is why it is happening:

When you create an environment, it sets up a bin directory. In that bin directory are all the executables relating to the environment. Some are scripts. As you may know, hashbangs are used to tell the system what interpreter to use to run the script. You may see this at the top of scripts often:

#!/usr/bin/env python 

If the script is at /tmp/test.py, that tells the system to run this command to execute the script:

/usr/bin/env python /tmp/test.py 

In your case, virtualenv is creating scripts like this:

#!/tmp/oh no/bin/python 

When the system tries to execute that, it will try to execute the command /tmp/oh with the arguments no/bin/python and /tmp/test.py. /tmp/oh does not exist, so it fails.

Answer 2

For those running into this issue, I discovered that the length of the path could cause issues as well, without using any spaces (Ubuntu 12.04):

virtualenv /home/user/some/very/longer/path/without/spaces/etc/venv 

failed, while

virtualenv /home/user/some/very/long/path/without/spaces/etc/venv 

worked just fine, see Alex's comment below