Installing pyenv on macOS for Zsh using Homebrew

install_pyenv_mac_zsh.rst

Installing pyenv on macOS for Zsh using Homebrew

Published May-13-2020

• Installation
• Basic Usage
• Virtualenv

Installation

Install pyenv and pyenv-virtualenv thru Homebrew

~$ brew update
~$ brew install pyenv
~$ brew install pyenv-virtualenv

Add the following lines to the end of the .zshrc file in your root directory (~)

export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"
export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"
export PIPENV_PYTHON="$PYENV_ROOT/shims/python"

plugin=(
  pyenv
)

eval "$(pyenv init -)"
eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"

Reload the .zshrc file to apply the changes made

~$ source ~/.zshrc

See all available versions for pyenv

~$ pyenv install --list
Available versions:
2.1.3
2.2.3.
2.3.7
...

Install a Python version from the list above. Note that this may take some time to complete

~$ pyenv install 3.5.6

Check on the installed pyenv Python versions

~$ pyenv versions
* system (set by /User/user/.pyenv/shims/version)
3.5.6

Basic Usage

Switch the global Python to a specific version

~$ pyenv global 3.5.6
~$ python -V
Python 3.5.6

Switch back the global Python to the system version

~$ pyenv global system
~$ python -V
Python 3.7.7

You can also set a project-specific version of Python

~$ pyenv global system
~$
~$ mkdir project
~$ cd project
project$ pyenv local 3.5.6
project$ python -V
Python 3.5.6
project$ cd ..
~$ python -V
Python 3.7.7

Virtualenv

Create a virtualenv for the Python version used for pyenv

~$ pyenv virtualenv 3.5.6 venv35
...
~$ pyenv activate venv35
(venv35) ~$ pyenv deactivate
~$

Check on the installed pyenv virtualenvs

~$ pyenv virtualenvs
venv35 (created from /Users/mari/.pyenv/shims/versions/3.5.6)

Awesome, thank you. This helped with some headaches.
Specifically trying to use the invoke ... commands after starting poetry.
Poetry uses the invoke build and invoke start (from what I understand), which is not supported in Python 3.10+.
Using pyenv i was able get other versions of Python installed to help.

The missing pieces for me were...

1. Install pyenv virtual env ( brew install pyenv-virtualenv )
2. Init pyenv virtual env ( adding eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)" to my zsh )
3. Create and activate a virtual env ( pyenv virtualenv 3.5.6 venv35 and pyenv activate venv35 )

Other mentions that may have helped...
Adding the eval "$(pyenv init --path)" to my zsh
Using export PIPENV_PYTHON="$PYENV_ROOT/shims/python" in my zsh
Using export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH" instead of what was on the pyenv docs in my zsh

For anybody that is using oh-my-zsh: if you're having problems with "pyenv not found" and/or a borked PATH, try putting above commands in your ~/.zshrc above the line that sources oh-my-zsh.sh (source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh).

Once I did this, pyenv started working correctly.

@e-volusian thank you, great note