Virtualenv OSError - setuptools pip wheel failed with error code 1

Question

I get the following error message when trying to set up a virtual environment with virtualenv 15.0.2 but receive OSError setuptools pip wheel failed with error code 1.

New python executable in /Users/nathmorissette/projects/tutorial/venv/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...
  Complete output from command /Users/nathmorissett...rial/venv/bin/python - setuptools pip wheel:
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 4, in <module>
  File "/Users/nathmorissette/miniconda2/lib/python2.7/tempfile.py", line 32, in <module>
    import io as _io
  File "/Users/nathmorissette/miniconda2/lib/python2.7/io.py", line 51, in <module>
    import _io
ImportError: dlopen(/Users/nathmorissette/projects/tutorial/venv/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload/_io.so, 2): Symbol not found: __PyCodecInfo_GetIncrementalDecoder
  Referenced from: /Users/nathmorissette/projects/tutorial/venv/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload/_io.so
  Expected in: dynamic lookup

----------------------------------------
...Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...done.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/nathmorissette/miniconda2/bin/virtualenv", line 9, in <module>
    load_entry_point('virtualenv==15.0.2', 'console_scripts', 'virtualenv')()
  File "/Users/nathmorissette/miniconda2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-15.0.2-py2.7.egg/virtualenv.py", line 711, in main
    symlink=options.symlink)
  File "/Users/nathmorissette/miniconda2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-15.0.2-py2.7.egg/virtualenv.py", line 944, in create_environment
    download=download,
  File "/Users/nathmorissette/miniconda2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-15.0.2-py2.7.egg/virtualenv.py", line 900, in install_wheel
    call_subprocess(cmd, show_stdout=False, extra_env=env, stdin=SCRIPT)
  File "/Users/nathmorissette/miniconda2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-15.0.2-py2.7.egg/virtualenv.py", line 795, in call_subprocess
    % (cmd_desc, proc.returncode))
OSError: Command /Users/nathmorissett...rial/venv/bin/python - setuptools pip wheel failed with error code 1

Any ideas how to resolve this issue?

Answer 1

I tried for hours, read lots of posts and finally find a way out.

pip uninstall virtualenv conda install virtualenv

The reason is the virtualenv installed by pip is not compatible with conda. I don't know more details, but it works for me.

Answer 2

I got this error while having several python versions installed on my mac. Specifying which python version to be used for your new virtual environment solves the issue.

By specifying the absolute python path:

virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python2.7 venv

or use your default python link:

virtualenv -p python3 venv