1 .. _tutorials.virtualenv: 2 3 Installing virtualenv 4 ===================== 5 `virtualenv <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv>`_, sets a 6 "virtual environment" that allows you to run different projects with separate 7 libraries side by side. This is a good idea both for development and 8 production, as it'll assure that each project uses their own library versions 9 and don't affect each other. 10 11 .. note:: 12 For App Engine development, virtualenv is not necessary. The SDK provides 13 a "sandboxed environment" that serves almost the same purposes. 14 15 If you don't have a package installer in your system yet (like ``pip`` or 16 ``easy_install``), install one. See :ref:`tutorials.installing.packages`. 17 18 Then follow these steps to install virtualenv: 19 20 **1.** To install it on a Linux or Mac systems, type in the command line: 21 22 .. code-block:: text 23 24 $ sudo pip install virtualenv 25 26 Or, using easy_install: 27 28 .. code-block:: text 29 30 $ sudo easy_install virtualenv 31 32 **2.** Then create a directory for your app, access it and setup a virtual 33 environment using the following command: 34 35 .. code-block:: text 36 37 $ virtualenv env 38 39 **3.** Activate the environment. On Linux of Mac, use: 40 41 .. code-block:: text 42 43 $ . env/bin/activate 44 45 Or on a Windows system: 46 47 .. code-block:: text 48 49 $ env\scripts\activate 50