# installing python apps in an isolated virtualenv

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/installing-python-apps-in-an-isolated-virtualenv/16266>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [September 18, 2014, 4:51am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/installing-python-apps-in-an-isolated-virtualenv/16266 "2014-09-18T04:51:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jeremiah\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jeremiah\_Campbell](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jeremiah_Campbell)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 4:51am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/installing-python-apps-in-an-isolated-virtualenv/16266/1 "2014-09-18T04:51:36Z")

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There are a lot of python utilities that in a perfect world would live in their own virtualenv and not mess with the system python.

A project called pipsi does this locally:

[https://github.com/mitsuhiko/pipsi](https://github.com/mitsuhiko/pipsi)

I have fiddled around with trying to accomplish the same thing using ansible. Never developed an ansible module before - there is a lot missing and it is very rough but it solved my very simple needs.

[https://github.com/meantheory/bearded-octo-archer/blob/master/roles/python-dev/library/pyapp](https://github.com/meantheory/bearded-octo-archer/blob/master/roles/python-dev/library/pyapp)

My solution is a bit hacky in comparison to the pipsi code and I imagine it misses various edge cases. I read over the pipsi code but I am not sure why it does what it does with the console scripts - for that I would need to understand python packaging more. Programming is a never ending loop of trying to eradicate my own ignorance. So it may be harder to implement something worthy of ansible core than I have time to devote to the problem.

- Jeremiah