Can't use tkinter with new venv set up with uv

[dstansby]

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -c "from tkinter import Tk; window = Tk()" 

This gives me the error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/dstansby/.local/share/uv/python/cpython-3.12.5-macos-aarch64-none/lib/python3.12/tkinter/__init__.py", line 2346, in __init__
    self.tk = _tkinter.create(screenName, baseName, className, interactive, wantobjects, useTk, sync, use)
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
_tkinter.TclError: Can't find a usable init.tcl in the following directories: 
    /tools/deps/lib/tcl8.6 /Users/dstansby/.venv/lib/tcl8.6 /Users/dstansby/lib/tcl8.6 /Users/dstansby/.venv/library /Users/dstansby/library /Users/dstansby/tcl8.6.12/library /Users/tcl8.6.12/library



This probably means that Tcl wasn't installed properly.

I can successfully run python -c "from tkinter import Tk; window = Tk()" in a fresh conda environment, but when I install python on conda it also installs tk, so maybe that's why it works? Maybe this isn't an issue with uv?, but if anyone knows how to get this working I'd be very gateful!

uv 0.4.4 (Homebrew 2024-09-04)
macOS

[zanieb]

This is a python-build-standalone quirk: https://gregoryszorc.com/docs/python-build-standalone/main/quirks.html#tcl-tk-support-files

We might need to set the variable as described there. 🤔

[bluss]

For the record, rye did this astral-sh/rye#233

[charliermarsh]

I'm not opposed to doing a similar thing here.

[mraesener-aubex]

to maybe point others to a workaround, all you'd need to do is to export an env variable called TCL_LIBRARY pointing to the correct tcl directory.
to figure the correct one out, I did the following:

ATTENTION: this assumes that your .venv is based on the default python available to uv and also that tcl is at version 8.6, so keep that in mind

#!/bin/bash

# Get the Python path
PYTHON_PATH=$(cd ~ && uv run which python)

# Extract the base path
BASE_PATH=$(dirname "$(dirname "$PYTHON_PATH")")

# Construct the TCL_LIBRARY path
TCL_LIBRARY="$BASE_PATH/lib/tcl8.6"

# Set the environment variable
export TCL_LIBRARY

# Print the set variable (for verification)
echo "TCL_LIBRARY has been set to: $TCL_LIBRARY"

for comfort I've then just put the var in my .env file which gets automatically loaded by .envrc (direnv) - which btw would totally be an appealing feature for uv to replicate :P

[astrojuanlu]

The quirks page says

Distributions produced from this project contain tcl/tk support files

However,

$ uv --version
uv 0.4.22
$ uv venv -p 3.9
Using CPython 3.9.19
Creating virtual environment at: .venv
Activate with: source .venv/bin/activate.fish
$ find .venv -name "*tcl*"
$ # ?

What am I doing wrong?

[emcek]

$ find .venv -name "tcl"
$ # ?

What am I doing wrong?

Those are in python installation directory not in virtualenv, I'm not next to linux box but under windows:

(venvflon) PS C:\Users\mplichta\Projects\venvflon> uv python list          
cpython-3.13.0-windows-x86_64-none     C:\Users\mplichta\AppData\Roaming\uv\python\cpython-3.13.0-windows-x86_64-none\python.exe
cpython-3.12.7-windows-x86_64-none     <download available>

So, path would be: C:\Users\mplichta\AppData\Roaming\uv\python\cpython-3.13.0-windows-x86_64-none\tcl\tcl8.6

As workaroud you can use tkinker like:

from os import environ
from pathlib import Path
from sys import base_prefix

environ["TCL_LIBRARY"] = str(Path(base_prefix) / "tcl" / "tcl8.6")
environ["TK_LIBRARY"] = str(Path(base_prefix) / "tcl" / "tk8.6")
import tkinter as tk

[astrojuanlu]

Oh I understand now. On macOS they're under ~/.local/share/uv/python/cpython-*-macos-aarch64-none/lib/tcl8.6 👍🏼

[giolucasd]

This is an important issue for me and my employers. I'm currently using the workaround suggeted above.
I'm a CS major with 5 years of SWE xp in python, but no xp in rust yet. Learning rust is a current goal of mine.
Would you consider this a good first issue for me or at least one that I could get along? If so, any special precautions?

[zanieb]

It'd be a stretch to say it's a good first issue, there's a lot of nuance to the possible solutions and I would have to do quite a bit of research to even understand what the trade-offs are. I think the first best step is to understand Rye's approach and if there are any alternatives. If it's the most compelling approach still, we should be able to port it over without too much difficulty.

[harrylaulau]

Since most people expect to use Tkinter that comes with the python, I guess including TCL_LIBRARY and TK_LIBRARY env path pointing to where uv installed python as @emcek described would be a good default solution? The uv can provide some override mechanism, like allowing use to specify custom path to these two environment variable in the .python_version file or maybe some other files? This way TCL should always work by default.

I tried @emcek method on Mac and the result is successful

from os import environ
from pathlib import Path
from sys import base_prefix

environ["TCL_LIBRARY"] = str(Path(base_prefix) / "lib" / "tcl8.6")
environ["TK_LIBRARY"] = str(Path(base_prefix) / "lib" / "tk8.6")

print(environ["TCL_LIBRARY"])
print(environ["TK_LIBRARY"])

from tkinter import *
from tkinter import ttk
root = Tk()
frm = ttk.Frame(root, padding=10)
frm.grid()
ttk.Label(frm, text="Hello World!").grid(column=0, row=0)
ttk.Button(frm, text="Quit", command=root.destroy).grid(column=1, row=0)
root.mainloop()

However I have changed the path of TCL_LIBRARY and TK_LIBRARY a bit as for mac its "lib" instead of "tcl", as pointed out by @astrojuanlu

Maybe uv can populate the two environmental variable by default?