How to Delete a Python Virtual Environment (venv)

This blog post will show you how to delete a virtual environment (venv) in Python using 3 methods.

Python virtual environments are great for testing and code in isolation because they help us manage dependencies and keep the global Python installation clean.

However, as you work on different projects, you may find that you no longer need certain virtual environments, and you may want to delete them. In this post, we’ll go over how to delete a virtual environment (venv) in Python.

Method 1: Using the Command Line


The first method for deleting a virtual environment is to use the command line. The command you’ll use depends on the operating system you’re using.
On Windows:

rmdir env /s /q

On Mac or Linux:

rm -rf env/

Make sure to replace “env” with the name of your virtual environment. This command will remove the entire directory of the virtual environment, including all of its contents.

Method 2: Using python’s built-in module

Another way to delete a virtual environment is to use the built-in module shutil. shutil module provides functionality to delete the directory and its contents using the rmtree() method.

import shutil
shutil.rmtree('env')

Make sure to replace “env” with the name of your virtual environment. This method will remove the entire directory of the virtual environment, including all of its contents.

Method 3: Using python’s venv module

You can also use python’s venv module that comes built-in with python. The module provides the EnvBuilder class which is used to create the virtual environment and has a method called delete() which can be used to delete the virtual environment.

import venv
venv.EnvBuilder('env').delete()

Make sure to replace “env” with the name of your virtual environment. This method will remove the entire directory of the virtual environment, including all of its contents.

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