Need a Python 3.8 virtual environment

[Steven Robbins]

Hi,

I'm trying to use a (non-Debian) python system built on python 3.8.  Debian's 
default is currently 3.9 so I am advised to use a virtual environment.   Being 
a newbie, I searched around and found a writeup covering several different 
virtualization tools [1].   Note I am using Debian 'sid'.

I can use the tool "virtualenv" to create a virtual environment for default 
python:

steve@riemann:/tmp$ virtualenv blah
created virtual environment CPython3.9.1.final.0-64 in 77ms
  creator CPython3Posix(dest=/tmp/blah, clear=False, no_vcs_ignore=False, 
global=False)
  seeder FromAppData(download=False, pip=bundle, setuptools=bundle, 
wheel=bundle, via=copy, app_data_dir=/home/steve/.local/share/virtualenv)
added seed packages: pip==20.1.1, pkg_resources==0.0.0, 
setuptools==44.0.0, wheel==0.34.2
  activators 
BashActivator,CShellActivator,FishActivator,PowerShellActivator,PythonActivator,XonshActivator


But not for python 3.8:

steve@riemann:/tmp$ virtualenv -p python3.8 blah38
RuntimeError: failed to find interpreter for Builtin discover of 
python_spec='python3.8'


I have installed literally all the Debian python packages whose name contains 
'python3.8'.   A very short list:

ii  libpython3.8:amd643.8.7-1   
  
amd64Shared Python runtime library (version 3.8)
ii  libpython3.8-dev:amd643.8.7-1   
  
amd64Header files and a static library for Python (v3.8)
ii  libpython3.8-minimal:amd643.8.7-1   
  
amd64Minimal subset of the Python language (version 3.8)
ii  libpython3.8-stdlib:amd64 3.8.7-1   
  
amd64Interactive high-level object-oriented language (standard 
library, version 3.8)
ii  python3.8 3.8.7-1   
  
amd64Interactive high-level object-oriented language (version 3.8)
ii  python3.8-dev 3.8.7-1   
  
amd64Header files and a static library for Python (v3.8)
ii  python3.8-minimal   



I have also tried the module 'venv':

steve@riemann:/tmp$ python3.8 -m venv v38
The virtual environment was not created successfully because ensurepip is not
available.  On Debian/Ubuntu systems, you need to install the python3-venv
package using the following command.

apt-get install python3-venv

You may need to use sudo with that command.  After installing the python3-venv
package, recreate your virtual environment.

Failing command: ['/tmp/v38/bin/python3.8', '-Im', 'ensurepip', '--upgrade', 
'--default-pip']

steve@riemann:/tmp$ python3.8 -m venv blah38
The virtual environment was not created successfully because ensurepip is not
available.  On Debian/Ubuntu systems, you need to install the python3-venv
package using the following command.

apt-get install python3-venv

You may need to use sudo with that command.  After installing the python3-venv
package, recreate your virtual environment.

Failing command: ['/tmp/blah38/bin/python3.8', '-Im', 'ensurepip', '--
upgrade', '--default-pip']


Note that I do have 'python3-venv' installed, but it is the 3.9 version:
ii  python3-venv  3.9.1-1   
  
amd64pyvenv-3 binary for python3 (default python3 version)


Is there something I've missed?  

Thank you,
-Steve

[1] 
https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-set-up-a-python-virtual-environment-on-debian-10-buster


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Re: Need a Python 3.8 virtual environment

[Steven Robbins]

Thank you so much to the many folks on debian-python who responded with 
instructions and pointers!

On Wednesday, March 3, 2021 4:45:46 A.M. CST Julien Palard wrote:

> As other  told, the right way is probably to compile it yourself (or use
> pyenv, but I don't like pyenv "shims", I prefer to keep it simple).

Thank you for the detailed instructions!  I used this method to build python 
myself and now I have the virtual environment set up.

Regards,
-Steve



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