What is the difference between venv, pyvenv, pyenv, virtualenv, virtualenvwrapper, pipenv, etc?
PyPI packages not in the standard library:
virtualenvis a very popular tool that creates isolated Python environments for Python libraries. If you’re not familiar with this tool, I highly recommend learning it, as it is a very useful tool, and I’ll be making comparisons to it for the rest of this answer.It works by installing a bunch of files in a directory (eg:
env/), and then modifying thePATHenvironment variable to prefix it with a custombindirectory (eg:env/bin/). An exact copy of thepythonorpython3binary is placed in this directory, but Python is programmed to look for libraries relative to its path first, in the environment directory. It’s not part of Python’s standard library, but is officially blessed by the PyPA (Python Packaging Authority). Once activated, you can install packages in the virtual environment usingpip.pyenvis used to isolate Python versions. For example, you may want to test your code against Python 2.7, 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8, so you’ll need a way to switch between them. Once activated, it prefixes thePATHenvironment variable with~/.pyenv/shims, where there are special files matching the Python commands (python,pip). These are not copies of the Python-shipped commands; they are special scripts that decide on the fly which version of Python to run based on thePYENV_VERSIONenvironment variable, or the.python-versionfile, or the~/.pyenv/versionfile.pyenvalso makes the process of downloading and installing multiple Python versions easier, using the commandpyenv install.pyenv-virtualenvis a plugin forpyenvby the same author aspyenv, to allow you to usepyenvandvirtualenvat the same time conveniently. However, if you’re using Python 3.3 or later,pyenv-virtualenvwill try to runpython -m venvif it is available, instead ofvirtualenv. You can usevirtualenvandpyenvtogether withoutpyenv-virtualenv, if you don’t want the convenience features.virtualenvwrapperis a set of extensions tovirtualenv(see docs). It gives you commands likemkvirtualenv,lssitepackages, and especiallyworkonfor switching between differentvirtualenvdirectories. This tool is especially useful if you want multiplevirtualenvdirectories.pyenv-virtualenvwrapperis a plugin forpyenvby the same author aspyenv, to conveniently integratevirtualenvwrapperintopyenv.pipenvaims to combinePipfile,pipandvirtualenvinto one command on the command-line. Thevirtualenvdirectory typically gets placed in~/.local/share/virtualenvs/XXX, withXXXbeing a hash of the path of the project directory. This is different fromvirtualenv, where the directory is typically in the current working directory.pipenvis meant to be used when developing Python applications (as opposed to libraries). There are alternatives topipenv, such aspoetry, which I won’t list here since this question is only about the packages that are similarly named.
Standard library:
pyvenvis a script shipped with Python 3 but deprecated in Python 3.6 as it had problems (not to mention the confusing name). In Python 3.6+, the exact equivalent ispython3 -m venv.venvis a package shipped with Python 3, which you can run usingpython3 -m venv(although for some reason some distros separate it out into a separate distro package, such aspython3-venvon Ubuntu/Debian). It serves the same purpose asvirtualenv, but only has a subset of its features (see a comparison here).virtualenvcontinues to be more popular thanvenv, especially since the former supports both Python 2 and 3.
Recommendation for beginners:
This is my personal recommendation for beginners: start by learning virtualenv and pip, tools which work with both Python 2 and 3 and in a variety of situations, and pick up other tools once you start needing them.