Provide a way to consistently run scripts that require project root relative paths

[kristofferpeterhansel]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
The pipenv run is really handy. But it requires a good deal of work to actually make it work for situations where your current directory is not the same as where the Pipenv file is located.

Just for something like using it as a shorthand for running your python application that requires setting the PYTHONPATH environment variable. It it is tricky to figure out what to actually set it to. And while it can be made easier by wrapping it in a shell script. Informing Pipenv where said script is located also becomes tricky

Describe the solution you'd like
The most simple solution I can think of would be having en environment variable (say, PIPENV_PROJECT_ROOT). And could be used in places like the scripts section of Pipfile. And in scripts run from it.

Describe alternatives you've considered
For my problem it would also have been nice with a way to have Pipenv update the PYTHONPATH environment variable to include a path relative to the project root. But just having the project root in the environment would likely solve more use cases

[uranusjr]

There is PIPENV_PIPFILE which I think is basically /path/to/project/root/Pipfile. I don’t know if it works, but it is worth a try.

Regarding PYTHONPATH, I (personally) think it is a bad idea for a tool to modify it in any case, since it is the absolute last resort, and should be left available for the user. We should find another way to do this if possible.

[kristofferpeterhansel]

Ah right. I actually noticed PIPENV_PIPFILEand then forgot about it again when I was looking for a way around this.

But it is not solving the problem of running in-project scripts defined Pipfile if they are referring to a relative path. So maybe it is more a question of always running those commands form the root of the project?

[kennethreitz]

I'm +1 to setting this environment variable in environments.py.

[AlJohri]

@kristofferpeterhansel that's the approach I take- run all scripts and commands from the same directory as the Pipfile (project root). ./scripts/myscript.py or pipenv run myscript

I found everything becomes a bit easier that way

[kristofferpeterhansel]

that's the approach I take- run all scripts and commands from the same directory as the Pipfile (project root). ./scripts/myscript.py or pipenv run myscript

Well yes. But I am not sure I can think of a reason why pipenv wouldn't just always run the scripts with the project root as working directory to make this consistent.

[uranusjr]

My guess is that it would make things like pipenv run python -c "import os; print(os.listdir())" very confusing. If there should be consistency, it is probably never changing the working directory, instead of always changing…

[kristofferpeterhansel]

That is true. I guess it then comes down to what is the intended use for the [scripts] block. And should it be tied into the command for running commands in the virtualenv.

If it is intended to be an easy way to run supporting tools (like, say, pytest or mypy). It would be much more practical to be able to do so in a way that does not require you to have the correct current working directory. Pipenv will find that anyway and it requires less work on the command line.

[techalchemy]

Things in the scripts section should already run relative to project root to emulate the behavior of other sub commands like install and shell I would think. That would be my expectation. Do they not behave this way?

[kristofferpeterhansel]

No. They do not.

I have entries like these. That will only run if my CWD is in the project root

[scripts]
mypy = "mypy --config-file=mypy.ini src"
test = "pytest -vv src"

[uranusjr]

@techalchemy There’s a hack to not chdir to project root specifically for run, I don’t know why. https://github.com/pypa/pipenv/blob/bba2f38d/pipenv/project.py#L115

[kristofferpeterhansel]

Hmm. So it was specifically added under the label of "improvement" (ef11b3e). Maybe @kennethreitz can remember the reasoning?

[techalchemy]

Calling pipenv run <unaliased command> doesn’t operate relative to the project root for obvious reasons. If you are in a subdirectory and want to run a script you would want the behavior that exists. We don’t need Kenneth to explain that.

Scripts however need to behave predictably. When you call a script you want it to run the same thing whether you are in the project root or some other directory, I would think. For example if calling a django projects manage.py in the scripts section I would expect that to work with a path relative to project root whether I am currently relative to the file in the same way or not