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brettcannon/ python-launcher (v1.0.0) 3 months ago
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brettcannon
349 Stars 19 Forks MIT License 550 Commits 5 Opened issues

Description

Python launcher for Unix

Services available

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The Python Launcher for Unix

Launch your Python interpreter the lazy/smart way!

This project is an implementation of the 

py
command for Unix-based platforms (with some potential experimentation for good measure 😉).

The goal is to have 

py
become the cross-platform command that Python users typically use to launch an interpreter while doing development. By having a command that is version-agnostic when it comes to Python, it side-steps the "what should the 
python
command point to?" debate by clearly specifying that upfront (i.e. the newest version of Python that can be found). This also unifies the suggested command to document for launching Python on both Windows as Unix as 
py
has existed as the preferred command on Windows since 2012 with the release of Python 3.3.

Typical usage would be:

py -m venv .venv
py ...  # Normal `python` usage.

This creates a virtual environment in a 

.venv
directory using the latest version of Python installed. Subsequent uses of 
py
will then use that virtual environment as long as it is in the current (or higher) directory; no environment activation required (although the Python Launcher supports activated environments as well)!

A non-goal of this project is to become the way to launch the Python interpreter all the time. If you know the exact interpreter you want to launch then you should launch it directly; same goes for when you have requirements on the type of interpreter you want (e.g. 32-bit, framework build on macOS, etc.). The Python Launcher should be viewed as a tool of convenience, not necessity.

Installation

Linux

Linuxbrew

brew install python-launcher

https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/python-launcher

Arch

yay -S python-launcher

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/python-launcher

Fedora

sudo dnf install python-launcher

Requires Fedora 34 or higher.

https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/rust-python-launcher/

RISC-V

  1. Download 
    python_launcher-1.0.0-riscv64gc-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz
    :
curl --location --remote-name https://github.com/brettcannon/python-launcher/releases/download/v1.0.0/python_launcher-1.0.0-riscv64gc-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz
  1. Install into, e.g. 
    /usr/local
    :
tar --extract --strip-components 1 --directory /usr/local --file python_launcher-1.0.0-riscv64gc-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz

AArch64

  1. Download 
    python_launcher-1.0.0-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz
    :
curl --location --remote-name https://github.com/brettcannon/python-launcher/releases/download/v1.0.0/python_launcher-1.0.0-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz
  1. Install into, e.g. 
    /usr/local
    :
tar --extract --strip-components 1 --directory /usr/local --file python_launcher-1.0.0-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz

x86-64

  1. Download 
    python_launcher-1.0.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz
    :
curl --location --remote-name https://github.com/brettcannon/python-launcher/releases/download/v1.0.0/python_launcher-1.0.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz
  1. Install into, e.g. 
    /usr/local
    :
tar --extract --strip-components 1 --directory /usr/local --file python_launcher-1.0.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz

macOS

Homebrew

brew install python-launcher

https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/python-launcher

Apple Silicon

  1. Download 
    python_launcher-1.0.0-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.xz
    :
curl --location --remote-name https://github.com/brettcannon/python-launcher/releases/download/v1.0.0/python_launcher-1.0.0-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.xz
  1. Install into, e.g. 
    /usr/local
    :
tar --extract --strip-components 1 --directory /usr/local --file python_launcher-1.0.0-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.xz

x86-64

  1. Download 
    python_launcher-1.0.0-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.xz
    :
curl --location --remote-name https://github.com/brettcannon/python-launcher/releases/download/v1.0.0/python_launcher-1.0.0-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.xz
  1. Install into, e.g. 
    /usr/local
    :
tar --extract --strip-components 1 --directory /usr/local --file python_launcher-1.0.0-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.xz

NetBSD

x86-64

  1. Download 
    python_launcher-1.0.0-x86_64-unknown-netbsd.tar.xz
    :
curl --location --remote-name https://github.com/brettcannon/python-launcher/releases/download/v1.0.0/python_launcher-1.0.0-x86_64-unknown-netbsd.tar.xz
  1. Install into, e.g. 
    /usr/local
    :
tar --extract --strip-components 1 --directory /usr/local --file python_launcher-1.0.0-x86_64-unknown-netbsd.tar.xz

Any OS supporting Rust

Crates.io

cargo install python-launcher

https://crates.io/crates/python-launcher

Source

cargo install --path .

https://github.com/brettcannon/python-launcher

Documentation

The general control flow for finding the appropriate Python executable is the following (with Python 3.6, Python 3, and the newest version of Python installed as examples):

See the man page or the top section of 

py --help
for more details.

See the API docs for using this project to build your own custom Launcher.

FAQ

How do I have Starship use the Python Launcher to display the Python version?

Add the following to your Starship configuration file:

[python]
python_binary = ["py"]
# The following isn't necessary, but convenient.
detect_folders = [".venv"]

Starship terminal showing change in Python version after creating a virtual environment

By using the Launcher with Starship, your prompt will tell you which Python version will be used if you run 

py
. Since the Launcher supports virtual environments, the prompt will properly reflect both what global install of Python will be used, but also the local virtual environment.

How do I get a table of Python executables in Nushell?

py --list | lines | split column "│" version path | str trim

Do note that the character that is being split on is not the traditional U+007C/"Vertical Line"/pipe character (

|
), but U+2502/"Box Drawings Light Vertical" (
│
).

How can I make the Python Launcher use my default Python version from pyenv?

If you're using pyenv to manage your Python versions, you'll want to set the version the Launcher uses to the pyenv global version.

Add this line to your 

.zshrc
or 
.bashrc
file: 
export PY_PYTHON=$(pyenv exec python -c "import sys; print('.'.join(map(str, sys.version_info[:2])))")

Or this line to your 

~/.config/fish/config.fish
file: 
set -gx PY_PYTHON (pyenv exec python -c "import sys; print('.'.join(map(str, sys.version_info[:2])))")

Appendix

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