Creating a new virutalenv hangs

Question

I have a macbookpro.

I downloaded virtualenv.py from pylonsbook.com/virutalenv.py

when I type:

python virtualenv.py --no-site-packages env

it outputs:

New python executable in env/bin/python

then it just hangs, I don't get the prompt in terminal.

I've restarted the computer and I get the same result, what's wrong?

Answer 1

Have you tried to easy_install virtualenv instead? Getting the most updated version is never a bad idea.

(Also, that link WFM on my MacBook. After that prompt it installs setuptools into the virtual environment.)

Answer 2

I just downloaded the version you are using, put the command in exactly as you did and it hung after:

 New python executable in env/bin/python

But only for three seconds:

jeff@DeepThought:~/Downloads$ time python virtualenv.py --no-site-packages env
New python executable in env/bin/python
Installing setuptools...................done.

real       0m3.423s
user       0m0.260s
sys        0m0.030s

The installed the (easy_install) version I got from http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv did not hang at all:

jeff@DeepThought:~/Downloads$ time virtualenv --no-site-packages ENV
New python executable in ENV/bin/python
Installing setuptools.............done.

real        0m0.525s
user        0m0.450s
sys         0m0.050s

I'm not sure how long you waited before giving up. I would try installing the version from python.org to see if that one works better for you.

Answer 3

There is not much information available but from what I can gather from the details that you have provided, it hangs just before installing setuptools. Setuptools is installed by fetching it from internet. It can hang, if it is not able to fetch it. Try keeping setuptools in the same folder as virtualenv.py and then create virtual env. This may solve the issue.