DEV Community

Cover image for How to upgrade the Python version in a virtual environment
Maria Campbell
Maria Campbell

Posted on

How to upgrade the Python version in a virtual environment

#django #pip #python3 #venv

Photo by Mitchell Luo on unsplash.com

Table of Contents

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
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Saving my current dependencies

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

pip freeze > requirements.txt
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

De-activating the virtual environment

Next, I had to deactivate the virtual environment:

deactivate
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

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
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Re-activating the virtual environment

Next, I had to re-activate the virtual environment:

source venv/bin/activate
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Installing saved dependencies

Next, I had to install my saved dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

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

Related Posts

Top comments (0)