Isolated space where you can work on your Python projects seperately form system-installed Python. Setup libraries and dependencies without affecting the system.
https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html
python -m venv /path/to/new/virtual/environment
How venvs work
When a Python interpreter is running from a virtual environment, sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix point to the directories of the virtual environment, whereas sys.base_prefix and sys.base_exec_prefix point to those of the base Python used to create the environment. It is sufficient to check sys.prefix != sys.base_prefix to determine if the current interpreter is running from a virtual environment.
A virtual environment may be “activated” using a script in its binary directory (bin on POSIX; Scripts on Windows). This will prepend that directory to your PATH, so that running python will invoke the environment’s Python interpreter and you can run installed scripts without having to use their full path. The invocation of the activation script is platform-specific (_<venv>_ must be replaced by the path to the directory containing the virtual environment):
| Platform | Shell | Command to activate virtual environment |
|---|---|---|
| POSIX | bash/zsh | $ source _<venv>_/bin/activate |
| fish | $ source _<venv>_/bin/activate.fish | |
| csh/tcsh | $ source _<venv>_/bin/activate.csh | |
| pwsh | $ _<venv>_/bin/Activate.ps1 | |
| Windows | cmd.exe | C:\> _<venv>_\Scripts\activate.bat |
| PowerShell | PS C:\> _<venv>_\Scripts\Activate.ps1 |