[venv] Add a CLI flag to venv to use the pwd basename as the prompt

[brettcannon]

BPO	38901
Nosy	@brettcannon, @vsajip, @JulienPalard, @DahlitzFlorian, @tirkarthi
PRs	bpo-38901: Allow setting a venv's prompt to the basename of the current directory. #17946

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2020-01-14.23:57:53.719>
created_at = <Date 2019-11-23.22:28:34.409>
labels = ['type-feature', 'library']
title = '[venv] Add a CLI flag to venv to use the pwd basename as the prompt'
updated_at = <Date 2020-01-14.23:57:53.718>
user = 'https://github.com/brettcannon'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2020-01-14.23:57:53.718>
actor = 'vinay.sajip'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2020-01-14.23:57:53.719>
closer = 'vinay.sajip'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2019-11-23.22:28:34.409>
creator = 'brett.cannon'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 38901
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 9.0
messages = ['357385', '357418', '357420', '357452', '357493', '358039', '359462', '359993', '360003']
nosy_count = 5.0
nosy_names = ['brett.cannon', 'vinay.sajip', 'mdk', 'DahlitzFlorian', 'xtreak']
pr_nums = ['17946']
priority = 'low'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue38901'
versions = []

[brettcannon]

I did a Twitter poll to see if there was consistent naming of the directory people created a virtual environment into when done locally to code (the answer is no). But a common theme was people not liking that the prompt defaults to the name of the directory that the virtual environment is in and seem to prefer for it to be os.path.basename(os.getcwd()).

Maybe it makes sense to add a --basename-prompt flag to set the prompt to the current working directory's basename?

[vsajip]

Maybe it makes sense to add a --basename-prompt flag to set the prompt to the current working directory's basename?

What does this buy you beyond using

--prompt $(basename $PWD)

? Perhaps I'm not understanding what you're getting at - how about an example of what you mean?

[JulienPalard]

I like the idea and I think I will use it!

As it's a bit long to type, I'm searching if other shorter variants could be usefull like:

python3 -m venv --here
python3 -m venv --cwd
python3 -m venv --project

being the equivalent of python3 -m venv --basename-prompt venv, but I'm not satisfied with the names (and it enforces using "venv" as a directory name)...

[brettcannon]

@vinay you got exactly what I mean. I had to actually teach a ton of people that shell trick with basename and pwd on Twitter, that trick doesn't seem to be something people know about, and yet a ton of people seem to be creating virtual environments with prompts manually specified like that.

Plus that trick varies from shell to shell and we already have enough issues just explaining to people how to activate between Windows and UNIX and then between even shells on the same OS.

So this is entirely for convenience.

@julien default directory names is an entirely separate topic as people can't agree on the default name (e.g. I prefer .venv as my default).

[vsajip]

Since there is already a --prompt available, I'd prefer a solution that allowed some special value(s) to be passed for this, e.g.

--prompt .

or perhaps

--prompt __curdir__

[brettcannon]

If it were . would we then always check if the prompt was a folder and then use the folder's name in that case? Or would it only apply to .?

As for __curdir__, it could work, but I don't know how easy would that be to remember or explain to new users compared to .?

My vote is to support . and make the rule that if you specify a folder it will use the basename automatically.

[brettcannon]

Any more feedback from anyone on the idea of using the basename of a directory if specified for --prompt?

[vsajip]

New changeset 7d63780 by Vinay Sajip in branch 'master':
bpo-38901: Allow setting a venv's prompt to the basename of the current directory. (GH-17946)
7d63780

[brettcannon]

Can this now be closed, Vinay?