How to fix your Python virtualenv after a Homebrew Python upgrade

Do you manage your OS X Python installation with Homebrew? Have you recently upgraded Python?

In my case it was a Python 3 point release; from 3.4.2 to 3.4.3. The downside is that this is enough to invalidate virtualenv’s symbolic links.

Example

~: cd ~/src/my_app
~/src/my_app: source venv/bin/activate
[venv] ~/src/my_app: python
dyld: Library not loaded: @executable_path/../.Python
  Referenced from: /Users/jeremycade/src/my_app/env/bin/python
  Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap: 5

As I’ve mentioned the virtualenv symlinks to your Homebrew python installation no longer link to the correct locations. The solution is to delete, and regenerate virtualenv symlinks.

First thing, we need to ensure that the your virtualenv is not active.

[venv] ~/src/my_app: deactivate

Next, delete the offending symlinks.

~/src/my_app: find venv -type l -delete

In this case I’ve made use of the BSD find command that ships with OS X.

The final step is to recreate your virtualenv.

~src/my_app: virtualenv venv

About Jeremy

Jeremy is a Father of 3, Husband, overly opinionated Software Engineer and Professional Trouble Maker.

Jeremy is currently a Cephalopod at Octopus Deploy.
You can find him on Twitter and GitHub.