python - virtualenv Env not creating bin directory in Windows 7

Question

I'm a newbie to Python and I've spent hours on this. I can't seem to figure out why when I run a simple command to setup my Python environment: virtualenv --distribute env

This doesn't create a bin file in the env directory.

It only creates:

-- env
   -- Include
   -- Lib
   -- Scripts

My impressions was that a bin directory would be created per a lot of the examples I've found on the web (e.g. I'm not able to run this command: env/bin/activate).

I'm using Windows 7 and Python 2.7.

Answer 1

On Windows, this is entirely correct. A bin directory is created on POSIX systems only. From the Windows Notes section of the documentation:

Some paths within the virtualenv are slightly different on Windows: scripts and executables on Windows go in ENVScripts instead of ENV/bin/ and libraries go in ENVLib rather than ENV/lib/.

For Windows, run pathoenvScriptsactivate to activate the virtualenv. From the documentation again:

On Windows you just do:

> pathoenvScriptsactivate

And type deactivate to undo the changes.

Based on your active shell (CMD.exe or Powershell.exe), Windows will use either activate.bat or activate.ps1 (as appropriate) to activate the virtual environment.