Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix> Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]

Question

I'm really new to Python and Django.... What I'm trying to do is:

1. Install Python 2.7 on Mac OS 10.6.8

2. Install pip Install Django

3. Install virtualenvwrapper

4. Create virtual environment

5. Install Django-Cms

I think, I'll be is ok from Install virtualenvwrapper to the Django-Cms installation because I have already done it, but in the first steps I got some troubles.

I download Python 2.z from python.org the Python 2.7.3 Mac OS X 64-bit/32-bit x86-64/i386 Installer (for Mac OS X 10.6 and later [2]), installed whit the wizard . That create a directory /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions with inside my 2.7 folder.

My directory /System/Library/Python is empty

I'm sure I've Python installed cos:

python --version
Python 2.7.3

but when I try easy_install pip it gave me:

Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix>
Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/easy_install-2.6", line 7, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 16, in <module>
    import sys, os, zipimport, time, re, imp, new
ImportError: No module named os**

Now no idea of what does mean ...so if somebody could help out from this and put me on the direction where I can istall my virtualenvwrapper I can take it from there.

I'm Junior a front end developer never touch back end so pls be specific and explain me what I need to do as u speak with a child.

Solution

You seem to have things turned around. Virtualenv creates a python environment that encapsulates a python install. So you want to do the following:

1. Install python
2. Create a virtualenv using that version of python (eg. virtualenv --python="path to python in 1" virt)
3. Switch to that virtualenv (workon virt)
4. Now install Django, etc. inside of the virtualenv virt

Here is the recipe I used to get my environment setup and running.

Are you using homebrew? I've found that's the most reliable way to get stuff on the mac.