Virtual Environment location is invalid when passing an absolute path

[huxuan]

Describe the bug

When passing an absolute path as package argument, VenvContainer.get_venv_dir() returns the absolute path directly and brings bunch of abnormal behaviors. Esepcially when the path is normalized which gets identical result after packaging.util.canonicalize_name(), reinstall and uninstall will remove the absolute path unexpectedly (as reported in #1324).

1. All related commands has error in logs: pipx >(run_pipx_command:197): Virtual Environment location is /tmp/empty-project
2. pipx uninstall and pipx reinstall will remove the directory /tmp/empty-project

How to reproduce

$ cp -r /path/to/pipx/testdata/empty_project tmp/empty-project

$ pipx runpip --verbose /tmp/empty-project list
pipx >(setup:924): pipx version is 1.5.0
pipx >(setup:925): Default python interpreter is '/usr/local/pipx/venvs/pipx/bin/python'
pipx >(run_pipx_command:197): Virtual Environment location is /tmp/empty-project
venv for '/tmp/empty-project' was not found. Was '/tmp/empty-project' installed with pipx?

$ pipx upgrade --verbose /tmp/workspace
pipx >(setup:924): pipx version is 1.5.0
pipx >(setup:925): Default python interpreter is '/usr/local/pipx/venvs/pipx/bin/python'
pipx >(run_pipx_command:197): Virtual Environment location is /tmp/empty-project
pipx >(_upgrade_venv:136): Ignoring --python as not combined with --install
Not upgrading empty-project. It has missing internal pipx metadata.
It was likely installed using a pipx version before 0.15.0.0.
Please uninstall and install this package to fix.

$ pipx inject --verbose /tmp/empty-project pywcowsay
pipx >(setup:924): pipx version is 1.5.0
pipx >(setup:925): Default python interpreter is '/usr/local/pipx/venvs/pipx/bin/python'
pipx >(run_pipx_command:197): Virtual Environment location is /tmp/empty-project
Can't inject 'pywcowsay' into Virtual Environment 'empty-project'. 'empty-project' has missing internal pipx metadata. It was likely installed using a pipx version before 0.15.0.0.
Please uninstall and install 'empty-project', or reinstall-all to fix.

$ pipx uninject --verbose /tmp/empty-project pywcowsay
pipx >(setup:924): pipx version is 1.5.0
pipx >(setup:925): Default python interpreter is '/usr/local/pipx/venvs/pipx/bin/python'
pipx >(run_pipx_command:197): Virtual Environment location is /tmp/empty-project
Can't uninject from Virtual Environment 'empty-project'. 'empty-project' has missing internal pipx metadata. It was likely installed using a pipx version before 0.15.0.0. Please
uninstall and install 'empty-project' manually to fix.

$ pipx uninstall --verbose /tmp/empty-project
pipx >(setup:924): pipx version is 1.5.0
pipx >(setup:925): Default python interpreter is '/usr/local/pipx/venvs/pipx/bin/python'
pipx >(run_pipx_command:197): Virtual Environment location is /tmp/empty-project
pipx >(rmdir:55): removing directory /tmp/empty-project
uninstalled empty-project! ✨ 🌟 ✨

$ pipx reinstall --verbose /tmp/empty-project
pipx >(setup:924): pipx version is 1.5.0
pipx >(setup:925): Default python interpreter is '/usr/local/pipx/venvs/pipx/bin/python'
pipx >(run_pipx_command:197): Virtual Environment location is /tmp/empty-project
pipx >(rmdir:55): removing directory /tmp/empty-project
uninstalled empty-project! ✨ 🌟 ✨
creating virtual environment...
pipx >(run_subprocess:174): running /usr/local/pipx/venvs/pipx/bin/python -m venv --without-pip /tmp/empty-project
pipx >(run_subprocess:174): running <checking pip's availability>
pipx >(run_subprocess:174): running /tmp/empty-project/bin/python -c import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_path('purelib'))
pipx >(run_subprocess:174): running /usr/local/pipx/shared/bin/python -c import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_path('purelib'))
pipx >(run_subprocess:174): running /tmp/empty-project/bin/python --version
pipx >(_parsed_package_to_package_or_url:137): cleaned package spec: empty-project
installing empty-project...
pipx >(run_subprocess:174): running /tmp/empty-project/bin/python -m pip --no-input install empty-project
pipx >(subprocess_post_check_handle_pip_error:331): '/tmp/empty-project/bin/python -m pip --no-input install empty-project' failed
pipx >(subprocess_post_check_handle_pip_error:346): Fatal error from pip prevented installation. Full pip output in file:
    /usr/local/pipx/logs/cmd_2024-04-19_11.16.52_pip_errors.log

Some possibly relevant errors from pip install:
    ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement empty-project (from versions: none)
    ERROR: No matching distribution found for empty-project

pipx >(rmdir:55): removing directory /tmp/empty-project
Error installing empty-project.

The behavior can also be reproduced on Windows

PS C:\> Copy-Item -Path "C:\path\to\pipx\testdata\empty_project\" -Destination "C:\empty-project" -Recurse

PS C:\> pipx.local uninstall --verbose C:\empty-project\
pipx >(setup:990): pipx version is 1.5.1.dev14+g4402362
pipx >(setup:991): Default python interpreter is 'C:\Users\huxuan\AppData\Local\pipx\pipx\venvs\pipx-local\Scripts\python.exe'
pipx >(run_pipx_command:212): Virtual Environment location is c:\empty-project
pipx >(rmdir:55): removing directory c:\empty-project
uninstalled empty-project! ✨ 🌟 ✨

Expected behavior

We should not use the invalid virtual environment in logs and the following steps.

Proposed Solution

Though #1324 is fixed by #1329, it does not seem to cover all the cases. There are two options I can think of:

1. AFAIK, seems there is no scenario that package need to be an absolute path, so we can just raise a PipxError if the package is an absolute path.
2. Check whether the venv_dir is relative to paths.ctx.venvs inside VenvContainer.get_venv_dir().

Let me know if you have any comments or preference.

[chrysle]

I think we should extend the check I already installed in main.py to the other pipx commands (except for install).

[huxuan]

I think we should extend the check I already installed in main.py to the other pipx commands (except for install).

It seems that the args in install command is package_spec now [1], so maybe we can just apply the check to all related commands?

[1]

pipx/src/pipx/main.py

Line 443 in 4402362

p.add_argument("package_spec", help="package name(s) or pip installation spec(s)", nargs="+")

[chrysle]

It seems that the args in install command is package_spec now [1], so maybe we can just apply the check to all related commands?

Ah, I wasn't aware of that. Yes, sounds good.