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I do a lot of Python and I use almost all the time a virtualenv along with virtualenvwrapper to keep my modules organised.

But when I want to use those plugin from inside vim, through an external command, it seems that the shell is not aware of that config.

I need to have access to the virtualenv because

e.g.

(venv) $ python
>> import simple_history
>> # OK here

(venv) $ vim
:!python 
>> import simple_history
ImportError: No module named simple_history

My shell is shell=/bin/zsh, I guess I need to use this setting to access my virtualenv, but I can't figure out how...

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13

I actually fixed this myself a long time ago. The problem is that when you run !python you're starting up a new shell with your existing environment. But, this means workon xxxx wasn't called to actually activate the virtualenv. This lead to a lot of confusion for me since $VIRTUAL_ENV was set.

I got around it by adding the following to my ~/.zshenv script:

if [[ -n $VIRTUAL_ENV && -e "${VIRTUAL_ENV}/bin/activate" ]]; then
  source "${VIRTUAL_ENV}/bin/activate"
fi

Since ~/.zshenv is sourced within the current session, it's a pretty safe assumption that the $VIRTUAL_ENV wasn't activated. Now when you run !python in Vim, it should use the virtualenv interpreter. You can confirm this by running :echo system('which python').

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5
  • Oh this is nice, maybe it's not the place to ask the question, but why should your snippet be in .zshenv instead of .zshrc? – nobe4 May 6 '16 at 6:17
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    @Nobe4 Because .zshrc is not always sourced, while .zshenv is guaranteed to be sourced. – Sato Katsura May 6 '16 at 7:52
  • Here is further information about the load order of zsh scripts: zsh.sourceforge.net/Intro/intro_3.html – Tommy A May 6 '16 at 13:36
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    I updated the answer because $ZSHENV_PATH_SET is irrelevant to solving the OP's problem. Adding the check for $VIRTUAL_ENV in that block was the result of late night troubleshooting. – Tommy A May 6 '16 at 13:51
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    to use with fish, i created ~/.config/fish/auto_source_venv.fish ` if test -e $VIRTUAL_ENV source $VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/activate.fish end ` and added . ~/.config/fish/auto_source_venv.fish to ~/.config/fish/config.fish – Tshirtman Nov 23 '19 at 16:12

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