How to upgrade the Python version in a virtual environment

Photo by Mitchell Luo on unsplash.com Table of Contents Activating the virtual environment Saving my current dependencies De-activating the virtual environment Deleting the current venv folder Creating a new venv folder Re-activating the virtual environment Installing saved dependencies Conclusion Related Resources Related Posts I was working on a new project today (the official Django Polls app tutorial as a matter of fact), and I noticed that my virtual environment was using Python 3.12. But in my project, I am using Python 3.13.0. Using different versions of Python in the virtual environment vs in the code can create problems and conflicts. I had to upgrade my version of Python in my venv folder pronto! Activating the virtual environment First, I had to make sure that my virtual environment was activated in my project: source venv/bin/activate Saving my current dependencies Next, I had to make sure to save my application's current dependencies: pip freeze > requirements.txt De-activating the virtual environment Next, I had to deactivate the virtual environment: deactivate Deleting the current venv folder Next, I had to delete the current venv folder. That is what I call my virtual environment folder. You might call it something else! Creating a new venv folder Next, I had to create a new venv folder using 3.13 since that is what I wanted to upgrade to: python3.13 -m venv venv Re-activating the virtual environment Next, I had to re-activate the virtual environment: source venv/bin/activate Installing saved dependencies Next, I had to install my saved dependencies: pip install -r requirements.txt And that's it! Conclusion In this post, I showed how to upgrade the Python version being used in a Django application's virtual environment. Related Resources How to upgrade Python venv version: stackoverflow Related Posts Creating the official Django Polls app Part 8: mariadcampbell.com

Jan 14, 2025 - 22:32

How to upgrade the Python version in a virtual environment

Activating the virtual environment
Saving my current dependencies
De-activating the virtual environment
Deleting the current venv folder
Creating a new venv folder
Re-activating the virtual environment
Installing saved dependencies
Conclusion
Related Resources
Related Posts

I was working on a new project today (the official Django Polls app
tutorial as a matter of fact), and I noticed that my virtual environment
was using Python 3.12. But in my project, I am using Python
3.13.0. Using different versions of Python in the virtual environment
vs in the code can create problems and conflicts. I had to upgrade
my version of Python in my venv folder pronto!

Activating the virtual environment

First, I had to make sure that my virtual environment was activated in
my project:

source venv/bin/activate

Saving my current dependencies

Next, I had to make sure to save my application's current
dependencies:

pip freeze > requirements.txt

De-activating the virtual environment

Next, I had to deactivate the virtual environment:

deactivate

Deleting the current venv folder

Next, I had to delete the current venv folder. That is what I
call my virtual environment folder. You might call it
something else!