Python Virtual Env

Download and install via apt-get, ports, easy_install, etc.

Locate the install directory (usually site-packages) and find the virtualenv.py script.
Alternatively, the package manager may have installed a virtualenv script into your PATH.

I will use ENV to refer to /path/to/python/virtual/env
I will use virtualenv.py to refer to /path/to/script/virtualenv.py

Create a new Virtual Environment
python virtualenv.py ENV

(optional) Activate (set PATH and PYTHONPATH) for new Virtual ENV
source ENV/bin/activate

Location of Virtual Env python binary
ENV/bin/python

Location of Virtual ENV python site-packages dir
ENV/lib/python2.x/site-packages/

Location of Virtual ENV python easy_install script
ENV/bin/easy_install


http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv

Relative to Absolute Path in Shell Script

Simple bash function to convert relative paths to absolute pats
fun_abs
{ echo “`cd \`dirname $1\`; pwd`/`basename $1`” }

http://www.robertpeaslee.com/index.php/converting-a-relative-path-to-an-absolute-path-in-bash/

UPDATE: unfortuately the above only works for directories that exist - the perl hack will get around this

fun_abs
{FILE=`$PERL -e "use File::Spec::Functions qw[rel2abs];print rel2abs('$1');"`; echo "$FILE"; }