pyenv

pyenv is a terminal-based Python version manager

brew install pyenv

After installation, you'll need to add its environment to your ~/.zshrc or similar.

eval "$(pyenv init -)"

Usage

pyenv will automatically resolve any incomplete version to whatever the latest is.

# Install whichever is the pinned version, see below for details.
pyenv install

# Install the latest version.
pyenv install 3

# Install the latest patch version.
pyenv install 3.10

pyenv use for setting the version.

# Use the latest version.
pyenv use 3.11.5

Which version comes first?

1. The version in the PYENV_VERSION environment variable.
2. The version stored in .python-version (whichever is nearest to your CWD)

You can set this using pyenv local <version>.

# Set 3.11.5 to our local version.
pyenv local 3.11.5

cat .python-version
> 3.11.5

3. The global version, which can be set using pyenv global <version>.

# Set latest 3 version to be the global.
pyenv global 3

pyenv-virtualenv

pyenv-virtualenv is a plugin for managing Python virtual environments.

brew install pyenv-virtualenv

After installation, add its environment to your ~/.zshrc or similar:

eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"

The virtual environments are stored under your home directory in ~/.pyenv/versions/.

To get started with a virtual environment, it's just:

# Name this whatever your project is called.
pyenv virtualenv <name>

# Then you can set it to your local version.
# Now, pyenv will use the virtual environment automatically :)
pyenv local <name>