Python: Introduction to Pipenv and Poetry with Best Examples

Also Read: Solved: "/usr/bin/python3: No module named pip" error on Linux

There are lot of efforts going on to improve the situation here because lot of people are not satisfied with the way virtual environments, requirements and pip work together. Recently, a lot of attention is given to pipenv tool which aims to combine the functionality of pip and virtual environments in a single tool and it also improves the way dependency management works.

There is a similar project called poetry with more or less similar roles looks very promising in improving the situation. These two are just the popular ones. But at this moment neither of these tools are standard one within the Python Community and is currently unclear if both of these tools will ever replace the pip and virtualenv tools. So, Let's see how to install and use them.

1. Pipenv

a) Install

To install pipenv, you need to use python3 -m pip install --user pipenv command as shown below.

root@cyberithub:~# python3 -m pip install --user pipenv
Collecting pipenv
Downloading pipenv-2022.1.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl (3.6 MB)
|████████████████████████████████| 3.6 MB 1.4 MB/s
Requirement already satisfied: pip>=18.0 in /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages (from pipenv) (20.0.2)
Collecting virtualenv
Downloading virtualenv-20.13.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl (8.7 MB)
|████████████████████████████████| 8.7 MB 11.2 MB/s
Collecting virtualenv-clone>=0.2.5
Downloading virtualenv_clone-0.5.7-py3-none-any.whl (6.6 kB)
Requirement already satisfied: certifi in /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages (from pipenv) (2019.11.28)
Requirement already satisfied: setuptools>=36.2.1 in /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages (from pipenv) (45.2.0)
Requirement already satisfied: six<2,>=1.9.0 in /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages (from virtualenv->pipenv) (1.14.0)
Collecting distlib<1,>=0.3.1
Downloading distlib-0.3.4-py2.py3-none-any.whl (461 kB)
|████████████████████████████████| 461 kB 16.4 MB/s
Collecting filelock<4,>=3.2
Downloading filelock-3.6.0-py3-none-any.whl (10.0 kB)
Collecting platformdirs<3,>=2
Downloading platformdirs-2.5.1-py3-none-any.whl (14 kB)
Installing collected packages: distlib, filelock, platformdirs, virtualenv, virtualenv-clone, pipenv
WARNING: The script virtualenv is installed in '/root/.local/bin' which is not on PATH.
Consider adding this directory to PATH or, if you prefer to suppress this warning, use --no-warn-script-location.
WARNING: The script virtualenv-clone is installed in '/root/.local/bin' which is not on PATH.
Consider adding this directory to PATH or, if you prefer to suppress this warning, use --no-warn-script-location.
WARNING: The scripts pipenv and pipenv-resolver are installed in '/root/.local/bin' which is not on PATH.
Consider adding this directory to PATH or, if you prefer to suppress this warning, use --no-warn-script-location.
Successfully installed distlib-0.3.4 filelock-3.6.0 pipenv-2022.1.8 platformdirs-2.5.1 virtualenv-20.13.2 virtualenv-clone-0.5.7

b) Export Path

Since it is not installed in any of the path which is visible to the system so we need to export the installation path to make it available system wide. You need to use below command to export pipenv installation path. Also to make this path permanent we need to update the PATH environment variable in ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc file.

root@cyberithub:~# export PATH=$PATH:/root/.local/bin

c) Use pipenv

Now that pipenv is installed successfully, we can test this tool by installing a package called babel using pipenv install babel command as shown below.

root@cyberithub:~# pipenv install babel
Creating a virtualenv for this project...
Pipfile: /root/Pipfile
Using /usr/bin/python3 (3.8.10) to create virtualenv...
⠙ Creating virtual environment...created virtual environment CPython3.8.10.final.0-64 in 730ms
creator CPython3Posix(dest=/root/.local/share/virtualenvs/root-BuDEOXnJ, clear=False, no_vcs_ignore=False, global=False)
seeder FromAppData(download=False, pip=bundle, setuptools=bundle, wheel=bundle, via=copy, app_data_dir=/root/.local/share/virtualenv)
added seed packages: pip==22.0.3, setuptools==60.9.3, wheel==0.37.1
activators BashActivator,CShellActivator,FishActivator,NushellActivator,PowerShellActivator,PythonActivator
✔ Successfully created virtual environment!
Virtualenv location: /root/.local/share/virtualenvs/root-BuDEOXnJ
Creating a Pipfile for this project...
Installing babel...
⠼ Installing babel...
✔ Installation Succeeded
Pipfile.lock not found, creating...
Locking [dev-packages] dependencies...
Locking [packages] dependencies...
Building requirements...
✔ Success!
Updated Pipfile.lock (c7f42f)!
Installing dependencies from Pipfile.lock (c7f42f)...
🐍 ▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉ 0/0 — 00:00:00
To activate this project's virtualenv, run pipenv shell.
Alternatively, run a command inside the virtualenv with pipenv run.

2. Poetry

a) Install

You can visit poetry Official website and get the steps to download the package. Below is the latest script to download and install the package.

root@cyberithub:~# curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/python-poetry/poetry/master/get-poetry.py | python3 -
Retrieving Poetry metadata

This installer is deprecated. Poetry versions installed using this script will not be able to use 'self update' command to upgrade to 1.2.0a1 or later.
# Welcome to Poetry!

This will download and install the latest version of Poetry,
a dependency and package manager for Python.

It will add the `poetry` command to Poetry's bin directory, located at:

$HOME/.poetry/bin

This path will then be added to your `PATH` environment variable by
modifying the profile file located at:

$HOME/.profile

You can uninstall at any time by executing this script with the --uninstall option,
and these changes will be reverted.

Installing version: 1.1.13
- Downloading poetry-1.1.13-linux.tar.gz (97.93MB)

Poetry (1.1.13) is installed now. Great!

To get started you need Poetry's bin directory ($HOME/.poetry/bin) in your `PATH`
environment variable. Next time you log in this will be done
automatically.

To configure your current shell run `source $HOME/.poetry/env`

b) Configure Current Shell

Once the package is installed, you need to configure your current shell to use this tool. This can be done by using below command. Other way is that you can close and open your terminal session and then start using this tool.

root@cyberithub:~# source $HOME/.poetry/env

c) Create a Project

Once the tool is installed and available the first thing you need to do is to create a project. For example, here we are creating a project called helloproject using poetry new helloproject command as shown below. Then if you go inside the project you will see multiple files generated like pyproject.toml, README.rst, tests etc.

root@cyberithub:~# poetry new helloproject
Created package helloproject in helloproject
root@cyberithub:~# cd helloproject/
root@cyberithub:~/helloproject# ls
helloproject pyproject.toml README.rst tests

d) Using poetry

Now if you need to add any package like babel then you need to use poetry add babel command as shown below. This will check the dependencies and install the package.

root@cyberithub:~/helloproject# poetry add babel
Creating virtualenv helloproject-ncgA5gW5-py3.8 in /root/.cache/pypoetry/virtualenvs
Using version ^2.9.1 for Babel

Updating dependencies
Resolving dependencies... (1048.7s)
........................

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