pip tries to install to /usr/local/ not to my virtualenv

[Roy Smith]

Local setup:

ansible 1.8.2

python 2.7.1

Remote:

ansible 1.8.2

python 2.7.6

pip 1.5.4

Playbook:

---

- hosts: all

  remote_user: hyc

  vars:

    local_base_dir: "{{ lookup('env', 'VIRTUAL_ENV') }}/../.."

    remote_base_dir: "/home/hyc/hyc.org" 

  tasks:

  - name: create virtualenv

    pip: chdir="{{ remote_base_dir }}/deploy"

         requirements=pip-requirements

         virtualenv=python-env

When I run this playbook, my virtualenv gets created on the remote machine, but pip tries to install into the global environment, resulting in errors like:

error: could not create '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django': Permission denied

It appears that the virtualenv doesn't get activated before pip starts to run.  What am I doing wrong?

--

Roy Smith

r...@panix.com

[Roy Smith]

Hmmm, upon further investigation, I found a Stack Overflow thread (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20040141/ansible-command-from-inside-virtualenv) which discussed this issue, and put me on the right path.  I ended up with:

  tasks:

  - name: create virtualenv

    pip: chdir="{{ remote_base_dir }}/deploy"

         virtualenv=python-env

         executable="{{ remote_base_dir }}/deploy/python-env/bin/pip"

         requirements=pip-requirements

which seems to do the right thing.  It does seem kind of counter-intuitive, however, that if you're specifying the virtualenv to install into, it doesn't, well, install into that.  Along the way to this solution, I tried the approach of two distinct pip plays, one to create the basic virtualenv, and the other to populate it with modules.  But this does the right thing in one play.

--

Roy Smith

r...@panix.com