Passing Python3 to virtualenvwrapper throws up ImportError

Question

I'm trying to use the virtualenvwrapper to make a python 3 based virtualenv. However,I'm when I pass the optional interpreter argument, I'm seeing this error. I'm running Ubuntu 15.04. I tried reinstalling virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper without success. Thanks for all your help!

$ mkvirtualenv scriptcutter --python=/usr/bin/python3
Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python3
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 8, in <module>
    import base64
  File "/usr/lib/python3.4/base64.py", line 9, in <module>
    import re
  File "/usr/lib/python3.4/re.py", line 336, in <module>
    import copyreg
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/copyreg/__init__.py", line 7, in <module>
    raise ImportError('This package should not be accessible on Python 3. '
ImportError: This package should not be accessible on Python 3. Either you are trying to run from the python-future src folder or your installation of python-future is corrupted.
Error in sys.excepthook:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 53, in apport_excepthook
    if not enabled():
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 24, in enabled
    import re
  File "/usr/lib/python3.4/re.py", line 336, in <module>
    import copyreg
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/copyreg/__init__.py", line 7, in <module>
    raise ImportError('This package should not be accessible on Python 3. '
ImportError: This package should not be accessible on Python 3. Either you are trying to run from the python-future src folder or your installation of python-future is corrupted.

Original exception was:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 8, in <module>
    import base64
  File "/usr/lib/python3.4/base64.py", line 9, in <module>
    import re
  File "/usr/lib/python3.4/re.py", line 336, in <module>
    import copyreg
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/copyreg/__init__.py", line 7, in <module>
    raise ImportError('This package should not be accessible on Python 3. '
ImportError: This package should not be accessible on Python 3. Either you are trying to run from the python-future src folder or your installation of python-future is corrupted.

Answer 1

I come across same issue, but after I downgrade virtualenv to 12.0.2, this problem disappears.

Answer 2

This is sort of a workaround for now.

Create a virtualenv using pyvenv.

# install pyvenv on Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install python3-venv

To minimize disruption in your normal workflow, pass a destination directory that is the same as the one used by virtualenvwrapper Like so,

pyvenv example ~/.virtualenvs/example

This is automatically working with workon and cdproject commands. I don't use much else that is provided by virtualenvwrapper

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

You can upgrade to the most recent version of virtualenv, with:

sudo pip install --upgrade https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/archive/master.zip
virtualenv --version
# Returns 15.2.0.dev0 when I ran it

The following command then works:

mkvirtualenv scriptcutter --python=/usr/bin/python3

Apparently, the develop branch was dropped, so the URL with "develop" will no longer work. My answer was based off of @pjotr_dolphin's comment, with the URL updated.