Cannot create and activate a virtual environment on Git Bash with Python 2.7, Windows - windows

Question

I am using Git Bash on windows with python 2.7 and I want to work in a virtual environment.
When I type
virtualenv venv
Bash says
bash: virtualenv: command not found
That makes me think virtualenv is not installed, then I try to install virtualenv
pip install virtualenv
But again Bash says
bash: pip: command not found
Then by reading this thread python 2.7: cannot pip on windows "bash: pip: command not found" I find out that it cannot find the pip directory, that maybe is the same reason for which it cannot find virtualenv directory.
So I specify the path of pip and I try again to instal virtualenv
python -m pip install virtualenv
It installs virtualenv but then tells
DEPRECATION: Python 2.7 will reach the end of its life on January 1st,
2020. Please upgrade your Python as Python 2.7 won't be maintained after that date. A future version of pip will drop support for Python
2.7.
So I go forward and try to activate my virtualenv by typing
virtualenv venv
and as I expected I get the same error of before
bash: virtualenv: command not found
that I try to solve in the same way I did for pip, by typing
python -m virtualenv venv
and this time bash responds with
$ python -m virtualenv venv New python executable in
C:\Users\Tommaso\DJANGO~1\UDEMYD~1\METAGL~2\venv\Scripts\python.exe
Installing setuptools, pip, wheel... done.
So I guess it created my virtualenv named venv, but in my bash terminal I still get the writing "(master)" at the end of the input line, that I guess it means the virtual environment is not active.
How do I activate it?

Answer 1

Solved!
Here is what I did.
First, by following this SO answer, I found out how to make Git Bash use python 3.7 instead of python 2.7 by default:
I opened the file aliases.sh with Notepad++, located at
C:<path where you installed Git Bash>\etc\profile.d\aliases.sh
Under the paragraph
--show-control-chars: help showing Korean or accented characters
I added these lines indicating where the two versions of python I want to switch are located
alias python2='C:/<installation_path_of_python_2.7>/Python 2.7/python.exe'
alias python='C:/<installation_path_of_python_3.7>/Python 3.7/python.exe'
alias pip='C:/<installation_path_of_python_3.7>/Phyton/Scripts/pip.exe'
alias virtualenv='C:/<installation_path_of_python_3.7>/Phyton/Scripts/virtualenv.exe'
You don't really need the last 2 ones, but it will help you a lot, since it enables Git Bash to call pip, virtualenv and other scripts without writing python -m before the name of the script.
You can check out if you did right by typing
python -i
It should return you the latest python version you specified.
Then if I type
python -m virtualenv venv
It installs the virtual environment in the current directory
To activate that, just type
. venv/scripts/activate
If it works, you should see
(venv)
near to your active input line.
To deactivate it just type
deactivate

Answer 2

I had the same problem before. The solution is to install virtualenv first using pip. Then:
enter virtualenv nameOfTheEnvironment
nameOfTheEnvironment\Scripts\activate
You should see something like:
C:\Users\bamidele\Documents\DjangoProjects>virtualenv venv
created virtual environment CPython3.7.2.final.0-64 in 15334ms
creator CPython3Windows(dest=C:\Users\bamidele\Documents\DjangoProjects\venv, clear=False, global=False)seeder FromAppData(download=False, pip=latest, setuptools=latest, wheel=latest, via=copy, app_data_dir=C:\Users\bamidele\AppData\Local\pypa\virtualenv\seed-app-data\v1.0.1)activators BashActivator,BatchActivator,FishActivator,PowerShellActivator,PythonActivator,XonshActivator
C:\Users\bamidele\Documents\DjangoProjects>venv\Scripts\activate
(venv) C:\Users\bamidele\Documents\DjangoProjects>```
I hope this solves your problem.

Answer 3

In git bash, cd into the virtual environment(venv) directory of your project and use this command
source ./Scripts/activate
to activate virtual environment(venv)

Answer 4

You can go
cd venv\Scripts
path. Then:
Run the command
activate
This run on my Flask project.