How to Activate a Virtualenv and Return to the Shell in Python?

Activating Virtualenv Using a Python Script: Beyond Command Execution

Many scripts demonstrate activating virtualenv instances to run commands within the environment and terminate the process. However, what if you desire to activate the virtualenv and return to the shell, mirroring the functionality of bin/activate?

Method

To achieve this, you have two options:

Python Subprocess

Run the Python subprocess using the virtualenv's Python interpreter located in the bin/ directory:

import subprocess

python_bin = "/path/to/virtualenv/bin/python"
script_file = "must/run/under/virtualenv/script.py"

subprocess.Popen([python_bin, script_file])

Exec on activate_this.py

Activate the virtualenv under the current Python interpreter using exec on the activate_this.py script:

activate_this_file = "/path/to/virtualenv/bin/activate_this.py"

exec(open(activate_this_file).read(), {'__file__': activate_this_file})

Note: This method requires the virtualenv library, not venv. If using venv, you can adapt the virtualenv's activate_this.py implementation with minor adjustments.

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