virtualize

Tools for virtualizing your Mac development environment

Currently supported tools:

• node
• python
• miniconda
• homebrew
• macports
• rust

Installing

To add virtualize to the git repo for your project:

git submodule add https://github.com/mitmedialab/virtualize
virtualize/setup.sh

The setup script will create an activate script, and a setup.sh script. Be sure to commit these into your project, along with the added submodule:

git add activate setup.sh
git commit -m "added virtualize"

Using

The activate script configures your shell to use the virtualized tools. Anytime you are working in your project, be sure to activate your shell:

source ./activate

Activated shells will show their activation status in a line right above your prompt:

[my-awesome-project]
$

You can type unactivate to disable the activation, or you can just close your shell and open a new one.

The setup.sh script is meant to be used as a first step after a fresh git clone of your project. It installs the virtualize tool submodules you have added and sets them up. It is a starting template file and you can modify it to do any additional setup for your project.

Adding Tools

Now that you have virtualize installed, and have activated it, you can add one or more of the supported virtualize tools.

For example, here is how to add node:

virtualize add node
git commit -m "added virtualize-node"

When you add a new tool, you will need to reactivate to get the new tool into your shell:

unactivate
source ./activate

Auto Activating

Here is a handy function you can add to your .zshrc if you are using zsh (which is now the default on newer macs). It checks for activate scripts whenever you cd into a directory and automatically activates the project for you. It helps to not have to remember source ./activate everytime you open a new shell.

function chpwd() {
    if [[ ! $VIRTUALIZE_ROOT && ! $VIRTUAL_ENV && ! $check_for_activate ]]; then
        original_pwd="$PWD"
        original_oldpwd="$OLDPWD"
        check_for_activate="$PWD"
        while [ "$check_for_activate" != "/" ]; do
            if [ -e "$check_for_activate/activate" ]; then
                echo "activating $check_for_activate/activate"
                cd "$check_for_activate"
                source ./activate
                cd "$original_pwd"
                OLDPAD="$original_oldpwd"
                break
            fi
            check_for_activate=`dirname "$check_for_activate"`
        done
        unset check_for_activate
        unset original_pwd
    fi
}