How to get virtualenv to use dist-packages on Ubuntu?

Question

I know that virtualenv, if not passed the --no-site-packages argument when creating a new virtual environment, will link the packages in /usr/local/lib/py

Answer 1

This might be a legitimate use of PYTHONPATH - an environmental variable that virtualenv doesn't touch, which uses the same syntax as the environmental variable PATH, in bash PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages:/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages in a .bashrc or similar. If you followed this path,

1. You don't have to tell your virtual environment about this at all, it won't try to change it.

2. No relinking will be required, and

3. That will still go wherever it would have gone (pip install always uses /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ for my Ubuntu) if you install them outside of your virtual environment. If you install them from within your virtual environment (while it's activated) then of course it'll be put in the virtualenvironment.