Python Virtual Environments

When installing pip packages, the best way to ensure there are no version conflicts with packages other users may require is to use virtual environments.

Steps to set up a virtual environment

1. Create a directory for your project
2. cd to that directory
3. Run the command python3 -m venv env
4. Activate/Deactivate the virtual environment
   • To activate, run source env/bin/activate from within the project directory
   • To deactivate, run deactivate in the command line
5. To install packages, use ./env/bin/pip install [package name]
   • If a specific version is needed use ./env/bin/pip install [package name]==[version number]