How do I remove/delete a virtualenv?

Question

I created an environment with the following command: virtualenv venv --distribute

I cannot remove it with the following command: rmvirtualenv venv - This is part of virtualenvwrapper as mentioned in answer below for virtualenvwrapper

I do an lson my current directory and I still see venv

The only way I can remove it seems to be: sudo rm -rf venv

Note that the environment is not active. I'm running Ubuntu 11.10. Any ideas? I've tried rebooting my system to no avail.

honk: sudo rmvirtualenv venv is not a valid command. Not sure why I thought a reboot would help. I'm fairly new, to be a honest. — wulymammoth, Jun 12 '12 at 21:57
Note that `rmvirtualenv` comes with virtualenvwrapper. You need that installed to make it work. — skytreader, Apr 07 '13 at 04:34
Note that you can also remove all currently installed packages, but keep the virtual environment itself if you have virtualenvwrapper installed: `$ virtualenv --clear path_to_my_venv`. I use this from time to time to make sure I don't have anything manually installed, like an old dependency no longer in `requirements.txt`. — Taylor Edmiston, Apr 15 '15 at 16:08
The `sudo` should not be necessary under normal circumstances. The whole point of a virtual environment is that you can manipulate it using your regular user account. — tripleee, Apr 13 '19 at 14:46
As of `virtualenvwrapper-4.8.4-1` (year 2019!), the command `rmvirtualenv` does the whole job as expected. No need to do a `rm -rf VENV`. — sphakka, Jun 12 '19 at 13:07
Note for future readers that --distribute is deprecated (https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/reference/#cmdoption-distribute) — Simon D, Sep 20 '19 at 02:22
Nice question you asked. This question really helpful for those who are newcomer. — AMIC MING, Dec 19 '19 at 17:13

score 519 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 20 '21 at 20:50

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"The only way I can remove it seems to be: sudo rm -rf venv"

That's it! There is no command for deleting your virtual environment. Simply deactivate it and rid your application of its artifacts by recursively removing it.

Note that this is the same regardless of what kind of virtual environment you are using. virtualenv, venv, Anaconda environment, pyenv, pipenv are all based the same principle here.

edited Apr 20 '21 at 20:50

KostasX

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answered Jun 12 '12 at 21:58

Thomas Anthony

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It's worth noting that if you are using pip to install dependencies, you might want to pip freeze a dependency list and keep at the top level directory. If you later choose to deploy your application, you won't have a bit of trouble. – Thomas Anthony Jun 12 '12 at 22:18
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Why is this accepted and with this much votes, when the correct answer is just bellow? Maybe this was for an older version of virtualenvwarpper – jsbueno Aug 28 '15 at 15:11
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@jsbueno He was using virtualenv, not virtualenvwrapper (they are not the same program). At the time, virtualenv provided no interface for clean up; you had to do it yourself. – Thomas Anthony Jan 23 '16 at 02:12
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If you've created a virtualenv in a git repo (and the files are not ignored): `git clean -dffx` – Rex Hardin Feb 22 '18 at 03:35
Works for me in Win10. I just deactivated the env and then deleted all the folders/files. – Doug J. Huras Jul 05 '20 at 16:37

score 178 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 04 '13 at 22:23

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Just to echo what @skytreader had previously commented, rmvirtualenv is a command provided by virtualenvwrapper, not virtualenv. Maybe you didn't have virtualenvwrapper installed?

See VirtualEnvWrapper Command Reference for more details.

answered Sep 04 '13 at 22:23

Devy

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score 123 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 07 '18 at 04:05

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Use rmvirtualenv

Remove an environment, in the $WORKON_HOME.

Syntax:

rmvirtualenv ENVNAME

You must use deactivate before removing the current environment.

$ rmvirtualenv my_env

Reference: http://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.io/en/latest/command_ref.html

edited Jun 07 '18 at 04:05

aydow

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answered Oct 24 '16 at 05:16

Antoniazzi

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there is even ``tab`` completion support for this! – muon Feb 08 '17 at 19:47
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Note that this answer is wrong as the OP never said that they had `virtualenvwrapper` – KevinDTimm Jun 13 '17 at 21:20
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@KevinDTimm Yes, but for those of us with virtualenvwrapper, this answer is 'righter' than right! – KhoPhi Oct 02 '19 at 12:08

score 96 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 21 '17 at 16:34

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You can remove all the dependencies by recursively uninstalling all of them and then delete the venv.

Edit including Isaac Turner commentary

source venv/bin/activate
pip freeze > requirements.txt
pip uninstall -r requirements.txt -y
deactivate
rm -r venv/

edited Apr 21 '17 at 16:34

Antman Slaper Man

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answered May 11 '16 at 06:11

Dawn T Cherian

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I think you're missing a `deactivate` before the `rm -r venv/` – Isaac Turner Dec 07 '16 at 15:17
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And *critically* only do this if you are not sharing the system's `pip`! (Otherwise you will uninstall all of your system packages.) – orome Jan 09 '18 at 17:29
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Actually there should be no need to separately `pip uninstall` if you are removing all the packages by way of `rm` anyway. Skipping that stepealso avoids the risk pointed out in the previous comment. – tripleee Apr 13 '19 at 14:43

score 46 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 21 '16 at 18:16

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Simply remove the virtual environment from the system.There's no special command for it

rm -rf venv

answered Sep 21 '16 at 18:16

Naveen Agarwal

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Works on me. Make sure to deactivate first if your virtual environment is still running. (your virtual env)>deactivate >rm -rf "your virtual env" – tthreetorch Dec 02 '19 at 02:22
I find that the `-f` flag is not needed. I prefer to avoid that flag when possible. – Will Jun 11 '20 at 17:02

score 35 · Answer 6 · edited Mar 03 '18 at 12:31

35

from virtualenv's official document https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/userguide/

Removing an Environment

Removing a virtual environment is simply done by deactivating it and deleting the environment folder with all its contents:
(ENV)$ deactivate
$ rm -r /path/to/ENV

edited Mar 03 '18 at 12:31

Konrad Borowski

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answered Mar 03 '18 at 12:27

N.Lee

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@Sébastien No, you should not need `sudo` or similar privileges unless you also used them to set up the environment in the first place, which would usually be an error. – tripleee Apr 13 '19 at 14:40
The link in your answer is currently broken. – Will Jun 11 '20 at 17:03

score 31 · Answer 7 · answered May 07 '19 at 10:06

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If you are using pyenv, it is possible to delete your virtual environment:

$ pyenv virtualenv-delete <name>

answered May 07 '19 at 10:06

Christiaan Herrewijn

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Danilo Matrangolo Marano · Answer 8 · 2020-10-17T20:01:48.443

1. Remove the Python environment

There is no command to remove a virtualenv so you need to do that by hand, you will need to deactivate if you have it on and remove the folder:

deactivate
rm -rf <env name>

2. Create an env. with another Python version

When you create an environment the python uses the current version by default, so if you want another one you will need to specify at the moment you are creating it. To make and env. with Python 3.7 called MyEnv just type:

python3.7 -m venv MyEnv

Now to make with Python 2.X use virtualenv instead of venv:

python2.7 -m virtualenv MyEnv

3. List all Python versions on my machine

If any of the previous lines of code didn't worked you probably don't have the specific version installed. First list all your versions with:

ls -ls /usr/bin/python*

If you didn't find it, install Python 3.7 using apt-get:

sudo apt-get install python3.7

And with yum:

sudo yum install python3

4. Best practice: upgrade you pip (weekly)

pip install --upgrade pip

Ole Henrik Skogstrøm · Answer 9 · 2018-08-17T10:00:46.653

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I used pyenv uninstall my_virt_env_name to delete the virual environment.

Note: I'm using pyenv-virtualenv installed through the install script.

edited Aug 17 '18 at 10:00

answered Dec 19 '17 at 00:32

Ole Henrik Skogstrøm

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This is obviously only valid if you use `pyenv`. – tripleee Apr 13 '19 at 14:38

score 7 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 25 '18 at 16:58

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The following command works for me.

rm -rf /path/to/virtualenv

answered Oct 25 '18 at 16:58

Ashiq Imran

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same here, any known side effects of doing this? I just delete the `venv` folder – ajayramesh May 11 '20 at 00:06
I didn't get any side effects – Ashiq Imran May 12 '20 at 19:34

score 6 · Answer 11 · edited Nov 22 '19 at 06:36

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If you are a Windows user and you are using conda to manage the environment in Anaconda prompt, you can do the following:

Make sure you deactivate the virtual environment or restart Anaconda Prompt. Use the following command to remove virtual environment:

$ conda env remove --name $MyEnvironmentName

Alternatively, you can go to the

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda3\envs\MYENVIRONMENTNAME

(that's the default file path) and delete the folder manually.

edited Nov 22 '19 at 06:36

Shekhar

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answered Mar 08 '19 at 22:37

CathyQian

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adding to the answer $MyEnvironmentName is just MyEnvironmentName without a $sign – rishi jain Jun 27 '20 at 13:52

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Apr 01 '17 at 11:35

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if you are windows user, then it's in C:\Users\your_user_name\Envs. You can delete it from there.

Also try in command prompt rmvirtualenv environment name.

I tried with command prompt so it said deleted but it was still existed. So i manually delete it.

answered Apr 01 '17 at 11:35

jahmed31

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Actually this isn't true. The location of the virtual environment really depends on where you execute the `virtualenv` command. E.g.: `C:\>virtualenv my_awesome_venv` will create the virtual environment in `C:\my_awesome_venv`. – Felix Apr 01 '17 at 11:55
i was talking about the virtualwrapper. My mistake – jahmed31 Apr 01 '17 at 12:11

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Nov 11 '17 at 00:31

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deactivate is the command you are looking for. Like what has already been said, there is no command for deleting your virtual environment. Simply deactivate it!

answered Nov 11 '17 at 00:31

garrettmac

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This doesn't answer the question. You are correct that you usually don't need to destroy your virtualenv, but that's what the OP seems to be asking about. – tripleee Apr 13 '19 at 14:41

score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Jul 03 '19 at 11:34

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If you're a windows user, you can also delete the environment by going to: C:/Users/username/Anaconda3/envs Here you can see a list of virtual environment and delete the one that you no longer need.

answered Jul 03 '19 at 11:34

Shekhar

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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered May 14 '20 at 12:59

You can follow these steps to remove all the files associated with virtualenv and then reinstall the virtualenv again and using it

cd {python virtualenv folder}

find {broken virtualenv}/ -type l                             ## to list out all the links

deactivate                                           ## deactivate if virtualenv is active

find {broken virtualenv}/ -type l -delete                    ## to delete the broken links

virtualenv {broken virtualenv} --python=python3           ## recreate links to OS's python

workon {broken virtualenv}                       ## activate & workon the fixed virtualenv

pip3 install  ... {other packages required for the project}

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Mar 10 '21 at 00:47

Actually requires two deletions.

The project folder which everyone in this thread already said you simply delete manually or using rm -r projectfoldername

But then you also need to delete the actual virtualenv located in macOS /Users/edison/.pyenv/versions/3.8.0/envs/myspecialenv.

You can do that by doing pyenv virtualenv-delete myspecialenv or manual removal.

Wanz Hated · Answer 17 · 2019-03-19T18:25:33.950

step 1: delete virtualenv virtualenvwrapper by copy and paste the following command below:

$ sudo pip uninstall virtualenv virtualenvwrapper

step 2: go to .bashrc and delete all virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper

open terminal:

$ sudo nano .bashrc

scroll down and you will see the code bellow then delete it.

# virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper
export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/.virtualenvs
export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3
source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

next, source the .bashrc:

$ source ~/.bashrc

FINAL steps: without terminal/shell go to /home and find .virtualenv (I forgot the name so if your find similar to .virtualenv or .venv just delete it. That will work.

This appears to answer a completely different question, and should come with a huge warning. Some of the advice is also poor (sourcing your `.bashrc` again does nothing useful, and could have unwelcome consequences). — tripleee, Apr 13 '19 at 14:37

How do I remove/delete a virtualenv?

17 Answers17

Removing an Environment

1. Remove the Python environment

2. Create an env. with another Python version

3. List all Python versions on my machine

4. Best practice: upgrade you pip (weekly)

Linked

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