I am pulling my hair out trying to figure this out because I had it working until last week and somehow it broke.
When I setup a virtualenv for a Google App Engine app and start the app with dev_appserver.py, I get errors importing the standard library (like "ImportError: No module named base64").
Here's what I'm doing:
(Using the system Python)
virtualenv --python=python2.5 --no-site-packages ~/.virtualenv/foobar
Then I add the a gae.pth file to ~/.virtualenv/foobar/lib/python2.5/site-packages/ containing the Google App Engine libraries:
/usr/local/google_appengine
/usr/local/google_appengine/lib/antlr3
/usr/local/google_appengine/lib/cacerts
/usr/local/google_appengine/lib/django
/usr/local/google_appengine/lib/fancy_urllib
/usr/local/google_appengine/lib/ipaddr
/usr/local/google_appengine/lib/webob_1_1_1
/usr/local/google_appengine/lib/yaml/lib
(That's based on this answer.)
Then I source my "foobar" virtualenv and try to start my app with dev_appserver.py.
The server starts but the first request errors out with the aforementioned "ImportError: No module named base64". If I visit the admin console I get "ImportError: No module named cgi".
If I start up python, I can load these modules.
>>> import base64
>>> base64.__file__
'/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/base64.py'
It seems that the SDK's sandboxing is preventing these libraries from getting loaded. But like I said, I had this working until last week...something changed or I inadvertently broke my virtualenv and I can't figure out how I got it working in the first place.
Software versions:
Google App Engine SDK 1.3.7
Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.4
virtualenv 1.5.1
Update: In response to Alan Franzoni's questions:
I am using the system Python that came with Mac OS X. I installed virtualenv via easy_install. I upgraded to virtualenv 1.5.1 today to try to fix the problem.
If I run python /usr/local/bin/dev_appserver.py with the virtualenv python, the problem persists. If I deactivate the virtualenv and run that command with the system python2.5, it works. (Also, I can use the GoogleAppEngineLauncher to start my app.)
Here is a full stack trace (this one uses the Kay framework, but the problem is the same with webapp):
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 3206, in _HandleRequest
self._Dispatch(dispatcher, self.rfile, outfile, env_dict)
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 3149, in _Dispatch
base_env_dict=env_dict)
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 525, in Dispatch
base_env_dict=base_env_dict)
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 2402, in Dispatch
self._module_dict)
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 2312, in ExecuteCGI
reset_modules = exec_script(handler_path, cgi_path, hook)
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 2208, in ExecuteOrImportScript
exec module_code in script_module.__dict__
File "/Users/look/myapp/kay/main.py", line 17, in <module>
kay.setup()
File "/Users/look/myapp/kay/__init__.py", line 122, in setup
from google.appengine.ext import db
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 1287, in Decorate
return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 1937, in load_module
return self.FindAndLoadModule(submodule, fullname, search_path)
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 1287, in Decorate
return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 1839, in FindAndLoadModule
description)
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 1287, in Decorate
return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/dev_appserver.py", line 1790, in LoadModuleRestricted
description)
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/ext/db/__init__.py", line 81, in <module>
import base64
ImportError: No module named base64