How to use the same Python virtualenv on both Windows and Linux

Question

I started using Windows and Linux recently on the same PC - they are installed to two different partitions, and a third partition contains common data and archives. virtualenvs created from Windows are made with folder "Scripts", and the counterpart in Linux is the folder "bin".

The problem here is that the files in those folders are not compatible for both OSes. For example, the "activate" contained in bin (created in Linux) don't run in Windows, and by the other hand, the "activate" in Scripts (created in Windows) cannot be executed on Linux.

Is there a way to use the same virtualenv on both OSes?

Follow this answer to learn how to produce identical virtualenvs in the two OSes (ignore the change from python 2 to 3) stackoverflow.com/a/41390096/267540 — e4c5
– e4c5, Commented Mar 11, 2017 at 9:31

alex · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-31 19:18:11Z

73

Short answer, NO. But you can share the venv build scripts.

pip freeze all libraries to a requirements.txt file.
```
pip freeze > requirements.txt
```

Create the venv on each OS:

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

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.

edited May 31, 2018 at 19:18

alex

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answered Mar 11, 2017 at 9:31

Shuo

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5 Comments

Cristianjs19 Over a year ago

ok thanks Shuo! so, venv created form both OS must be in the same directory? (e.g D:\venv\test) And then operate from the rigth folder of each one?

Shuo Over a year ago

@Cristianjs19 No, if you build venv on each os, you can put it anywhere. But when share the venv folder, that requires the same path.

Carmine Tambascia Over a year ago

Is possible to "migrate" a virtualenv created in Windows if the virtualenv cannot be activated( well with time and installing the same machine as W7, I would following the answer)?

Semen Over a year ago

a small addition in Windows source env/bin/activate should be chaged to env\Scripts\activate

SvenS Over a year ago

Yeah this is actually really frustrating, why did they create a different structure for venv in windows and linux? Now my bash scripts that should run on either native machines or in git-bash are getting complicated, not to speak of developer instructions 😕

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