Making `#!/usr/bin/env python` work on Windows

Question

I use Bash on Windows, provided by MSYS.

I tried to run a Python file with a shebang of #!/usr/bin/env python, but I get this error message:

/usr/bin/env: python: No such file or directory

What can I do to make this work?

I know I can launch the Python file by suffixing it with python, but I want it to work without the suffix too.

Answer 1

Use the proper path where Python is installed instead, for example:

#!c:/Python/python.exe

---

If you have Unix-like path support on your system (I'm not familiar with MSYS), you can always enter the path to your python executable, i.e. the output of which python.

Answer 2

What happens when you run (from the shell):

$ /usr/bin/env python

..?

If it starts an interactive python session, then python can be found. (You can also simply run: type python). If it prints "no such file or directory", then python isn't being found in your PATH. See if the following can be tweaked to fix the problem (spaces in the path/to/python will probably cause issues):

$ export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/python
$ /usr/bin/env python

Answer 3

You might be interested in a Python Launcher For Windows

Answer 4

I turned out to be a mismatch between Virtualenv's activate.sh file and MSYSGIT. It was never intended to work on Windows.