virtualenv will pick up a [install] settings in setup.cfg for installing pip

[sabaini]

I happened to have a setup.cfg in a directory that I've installed a virtualenv from (ie. the cwd contained the setup.cfg). To my surprise, virtualenv picked up on the [install] section and wanted to install pip into the prefix mentioned there.

Testcase:

$ cat > setup.cfg <<EOF
[install]
prefix = /nosuchdirectory
EOF
$ virtualenv venv     
New python executable in venv/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip...
  Complete output from command /home/peter/tmp/tst/venv/bin/python -c "import sys, pip; sys...d\"] + sys.argv[1:]))" setuptools pip:
  Ignoring indexes: https://pypi.python.org/simple
Collecting setuptools
Collecting pip
Installing collected packages: pip, setuptools

  Exception:
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-6.0.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/basecommand.py", line 232, in main
      status = self.run(options, args)
    File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-6.0.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/commands/install.py", line 347, in run
      root=options.root_path,
    File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-6.0.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/req/req_set.py", line 549, in install
      **kwargs
    File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-6.0.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/req/req_install.py", line 754, in install
      self.move_wheel_files(self.source_dir, root=root)
    File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-6.0.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/req/req_install.py", line 963, in move_wheel_files
      isolated=self.isolated,
    File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-6.0.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/wheel.py", line 234, in move_wheel_files
      clobber(source, lib_dir, True)
    File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-6.0.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/wheel.py", line 176, in clobber
      os.makedirs(dest)
    File "/home/peter/tmp/tst/venv/lib/python2.7/os.py", line 150, in makedirs
      makedirs(head, mode)
    File "/home/peter/tmp/tst/venv/lib/python2.7/os.py", line 150, in makedirs
      makedirs(head, mode)
    File "/home/peter/tmp/tst/venv/lib/python2.7/os.py", line 150, in makedirs
      makedirs(head, mode)
    File "/home/peter/tmp/tst/venv/lib/python2.7/os.py", line 157, in makedirs
      mkdir(name, mode)
  OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/nosuchdirectory'

----------------------------------------
...Installing setuptools, pip...done.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/virtualenv", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 825, in main
    symlink=options.symlink)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 993, in create_environment
    install_wheel(to_install, py_executable, search_dirs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 961, in install_wheel
    'PIP_NO_INDEX': '1'
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 903, in call_subprocess
    % (cmd_desc, proc.returncode))
OSError: Command /home/peter/tmp/tst/venv/bin/python -c "import sys, pip; sys...d\"] + sys.argv[1:]))" setuptools pip failed with error code 2

$ virtualenv --version
12.0.7

[petroav]

I've run into this issue as well. Is there a workaround?

[crquan]

hit by the same issue, and in the created virtualenv trying to pip install something also failed of above prefix not exist, or no write permission;
workaround is to cd into some other directory where is no setup.cfg with [install] section; but why virtualenv needs to read setup.cfg ?

[dkasak]

Just had an hour of head-scratching over this. To make matters worse, I had the prefix set to a dot directory so it wasn't even immediately obvious virtualenv was creating junk. This is definitely a bug or at least counterintuitive behaviour.

[jaraco]

This issue also causes problems if setup.cfg has a syntax error. Consider:

draft $ cat > setup.cfg                                                                                                                                                                  
garbage
draft $ virtualenv env                                                                                                                                                                   
Using base prefix '/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7'
New python executable in /Users/jaraco/draft/env/bin/python3
Also creating executable in /Users/jaraco/draft/env/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/bin/virtualenv", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 712, in main
    symlink=options.symlink)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 947, in create_environment
    download=download,
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 904, in install_wheel
    call_subprocess(cmd, show_stdout=False, extra_env=env, stdin=SCRIPT)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 796, in call_subprocess
    % (cmd_desc, proc.returncode))
OSError: Command /Users/jaraco/draft/env/bin/python3 - setuptools pip wheel failed with error code 2

  Complete output from command /Users/jaraco/draft/env/bin/python3 - setuptools pip wheel:
  Looking in links: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages, /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support, /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support
Collecting setuptools
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/37/06/754589caf971b0d2d48f151c2586f62902d93dc908e2fd9b9b9f6aa3c9dd/setuptools-40.6.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Collecting pip
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/c2/d7/90f34cb0d83a6c5631cf71dfe64cc1054598c843a92b400e55675cc2ac37/pip-18.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Collecting wheel
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/ff/47/1dfa4795e24fd6f93d5d58602dd716c3f101cfd5a77cd9acbe519b44a0a9/wheel-0.32.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Installing collected packages: setuptools, pip, wheel
Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-10.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/_internal/basecommand.py", line 228, in main
    status = self.run(options, args)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-10.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/_internal/commands/install.py", line 335, in run
    use_user_site=options.use_user_site,
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-10.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/_internal/req/__init__.py", line 49, in install_given_reqs
    **kwargs
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-10.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/_internal/req/req_install.py", line 748, in install
    use_user_site=use_user_site, pycompile=pycompile,
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-10.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/_internal/req/req_install.py", line 961, in move_wheel_files
    warn_script_location=warn_script_location,
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-10.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/_internal/wheel.py", line 216, in move_wheel_files
    prefix=prefix,
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-10.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/_internal/locations.py", line 153, in distutils_scheme
    d.parse_config_files()
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/distutils/dist.py", line 406, in parse_config_files
    parser.read(filename)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/configparser.py", line 696, in read
    self._read(fp, filename)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/configparser.py", line 1079, in _read
    raise MissingSectionHeaderError(fpname, lineno, line)
configparser.MissingSectionHeaderError: File contains no section headers.
file: 'setup.cfg', line: 1
'garbage\n'
----------------------------------------
...Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...done.

I encountered this issue in tox-dev/tox-venv#25 when invoking install_wheel. Probably virtualenv should perform some sort of isolation in install_wheel, probably by passing cwd='/' to call_subprocess(). At least that's what pre-commit does.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Just add a comment if you want to keep it open. Thank you for your contributions.

[cunderwood-va]

This still occurs.

[ericholscher]

Just hit this as well. Would be useful if we could at least pass a flag or something to virtualenv to ignore it. I think we're likely just going to end up doing a mv setup.cfg setup.cfg.bak && virtualenv, which isn't a great solution :)

[gaborbernat]

Does pip have a flag to ignore it's config files?

[gaborbernat]

Fixed with #1641 on python 2 👍