RFE: --always-copy

[nvMcJohn]

Given that the footprint of the copy would be relatively small, would it be possible to add an option to always copy (as on windows) rather than symlinking?

The main benefit of copying is the ability to then check the virtual environment into source control.

Thanks!

[schmir]

that's also discussed in #92

[pnasrat]

I don't have a huge issue with this - do you want to try put a patch together.

[nvMcJohn]

Sure, I'll take a stab at it.

[m0she]

I've made a simple patch that works for me (at least using a shared windows folder on a linux machine, which didn't work before) - https://gist.github.com/m0she/4990128 - just add --always-copy to your command-line to use.

I haven't tested it thoroughly nor is it completely abiding to the project coding conventions and github is stuck on cloning the repo - so I'm not sending a pull request (perhaps tomorrow)

[pferreir]

+1 for this!
Thanks!

[jpascal]

$ virtualenv --version
1.10.1
$ virtualenv --always-copy test
New python executable in test/bin/python
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/virtualenv", line 8, in
load_entry_point('virtualenv==1.10.1', 'console_scripts', 'virtualenv')()
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.10.1-py2.7.egg/virtualenv.py", line 821, in main
symlink=options.symlink)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.10.1-py2.7.egg/virtualenv.py", line 956, in create_environment
site_packages=site_packages, clear=clear, symlink=symlink))
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.10.1-py2.7.egg/virtualenv.py", line 1377, in install_python
shutil.copyfile(py_executable_base, full_pth)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/shutil.py", line 81, in copyfile
with open(src, 'rb') as fsrc:
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'python'

[qwcode]

this was added in #409
(the bug for it not working though is #495)