Posted on

Fixing a PyCharm issue when updating Python made via HomeBrew

I’ve written before about how easy it is to update your version of Python using homebrew. And it totally is easy.

The thing that isn’t super clear is that when you do update Python via Homebrew, it seems to break your virtual environments in PyCharm. 🤦‍♂️

I did a bit of searching to find this nice post on the JetBrains forum which indicated

unfortunately it’s a known issue: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/PY-27251 . Please close Pycharm and remove jdk.table.xml file from ~/Library/Preferences/.PyCharm2018.1/options directory, then start Pycharm again.

OK. I removed the file, but then you have to rebuild the virtual environments because that file is what stores PyCharms knowledge of those virtual environments.

In order to get you back to where you need to be, do the following (after removing the jdk.table.xml file:

  1. pip-freeze > requirements.txt
  2. Remove old virtual environment rm -r venv
  3. Create a new Virtual Environemtn with PyCharm
    1. Go to Preferences
    2. Project > Project Interpreter
    3. Show All
    4. Click ‘+’ button
  4. pip install -r requirements.txt
  5. Restart PyCharm
  6. You’re back

This is a giant PITA but thankfully it didn’t take too much to find the issue, nor to fix it. With that being said, I totally shouldn’t have to do this. But I’m writing it down so that once Python 3.8 is available I’ll be able to remember what I did to fix going from Python 3.7.1 to 3.7.5.

Posted on

Moving my Pycharm Directory or How I spent my Saturday after jacking up my PyCharm environment

Every once in a while I get a wild hair and decide that I need to ‘clean up’ my directories. This never ends well and I almost always mess up something, but I still do it.

Why? I’m not sure, except that I forget that I’ll screw it up. 🤦‍♂️

Anyway, on a Saturday morning when I had nothing but time I decided that I’d move my PyCharm directory from /Users/ryan/PyCharm to /Users/ryan/Documents/PyCharm for no other reason than because.

I proceeded to use the command line to move the folder 

mv /Users/ryan/PyCharm/ /Users/ryan/Documents/PyCharm/

Nothing too big, right. Just a simple file movement.

Not so much. I then tried to open a project in PyCharm and it promptly freaked out. Since I use virtual environments for my Python Project AND they tend to have paths that reference where they exist, suddenly ALL of my virtual environments were kind of just gone.

Whoops!

OK. No big deal. I just undid my move

mv /Users/ryan/Documents/PyCharm/ /Users/ryan/PyCharm

That should fix me up, right?

Well, mostly. I had to re-register the virtual environments and reinstall all of the packages in my projects (mostly not a big deal with PyCharm) but holy crap it was scary. I thought I had hosed my entire set of projects (not that I have anything that’s critical … but still).

Anyway, this is mostly a note to myself.

The next time you get a wild hair to move stuff around, just keep it where it is. There’s no reason for it (unless there is).

But seriously, ask yourself first, “If I don’t move this what will happen?” If the answer is anything less than “Something awful” go watch a baseball game, or go to the pool, or write some code. Don’t mess with your environment unless you really want to spend a couple of hours unmasking it up!