So, I have a python script I'd like to run from time to time from the CLI (on Linux) that resides inside a venv. What's the recommended/intended way to do this?
Write a wrapper shell script and put it inside a $PATH-accessible directory that activates the virtual environment, runs the python script and deactivates the venv again? This seems a bit convoluted, but I can't think of a better way.

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[–] lakeeffect@lemmy.world 26 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Use venv/bin/python app.py to run it.

[–] Schmerzbold 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That works nicely. Thanks 👍

[–] Andy@programming.dev 2 points 5 months ago

I use my own Zsh project (zpy) to manage venvs stored like ~/.local/share/venvs/HASH-OF-PROJECT-PATH/venv, so use zpy's vpy function to launch a script with its associated Python executable ad-hoc, or add a full path shebang to the script with zpy's vpyshebang function.

vpy and vpyshebang in the docs

If anyone else is a Zsh fan and has any questions, I'm more than happy to answer or demo.

[–] Violet_McQuasional@feddit.uk 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This. I've experimented by using pex before and one or two other means of executable python wrappers and they suck. Just do as lakeeffect says.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 1 points 5 months ago

Yep. This is the way.

[–] kionite231@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I think the path to venv should be absolute right?

[–] lakeeffect@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Yeah, for the most part but really depends on what you’re trying to do specifically.

[–] logging_strict@programming.dev 1 points 5 months ago

Just activate the venv and then put it out of your mind. Can activate it with either a relative or absolute path. Doesn't matter which

[–] gitamar@feddit.de 3 points 5 months ago

I use pipenv with pyenv together. This works pretty well, also in cron jobs. Just add pipenv run python script.py to the cron table.

[–] Andy@programming.dev 2 points 3 weeks ago

As someone's new comments just brought me back to this post, I'll point out that these days there's another good option: uv run.

[–] dallen@programming.dev 2 points 5 months ago

You could package it and install with pipx

[–] namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev 2 points 5 months ago

Just in case this comment didn't make it explicitly clear, you can just invoke the python binary inside your venv directly and it will automatically locate all the libraries that are installed in your virtual environment.

To show how this works, you can look at the sys.path variable to see which paths python will search for modules when you run import statements. Try running python3 -c 'import sys; print(sys.path)' using your system python, and you will only see system python library paths. Then, try running it again after replacing python3 with the full path to the python3 binary in your venv, and you will see an additional entry in the output with the lib directory in your venv, which shows that python will also look there for modules when an import statement is executed.

[–] santa@sh.itjust.works -2 points 5 months ago

Does it need access to anything local? If not, you could run it as an AWS Lambda on a schedule.