### The Virtualenv [Project](https://realpython.com/python-virtual-environments-a-primer/#the-virtualenv-project "Permanent link")


[Virtualenv](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/) is a tool that was specifically made for creating isolated Python environments. It’s been a long-time favorite within the Python community and precedes the built-in `venv` module.

Official docs found [here](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/installation.html). 
List all virtual environments installed on your system: 

```
lsvirtualenv
```

By default, virtualenv creates environments in the `$HOME/.virtualenvs` directory on Linux and macOS, or in the `%USERPROFILE%\Envs` directory on Windows. You can use the `ls` command to list the contents of this directory and see the names of all the virtualenv environments installed on your system.

---

The package is a superset of `venv`, which allows you to do everything that you can do using `venv`, and more. Virtualenv allows you to:

-   Create virtual environments more quickly
-   [Discover](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/user_guide.html#python-discovery) installed versions of Python without needing to provide the absolute path
-   Upgrade the tool using `pip`
-   Extend the functionality of the tool yourself

Any of these additional functionalities can come in handy when you’re working on your Python projects. You might even want to save a blueprint of your virtualenv in code together with your project to aid reproducibility. Virtualenv has a rich [programmatic API](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/user_guide.html#programmatic-api) that allows you to describe virtual environments without creating them.

After [installing `virtualenv`](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/installation.html) on your system, you can create and activate a new virtual environment similarly to how you do it using `venv`: