Why is Pipenv not picking up my Pyenv versions?

Question

My system Python version is 3.8.5, however I use pyenv to manage an additional version, 3.6.0, to mirror the server version my project is deployed to. I previously used virtualenv + virtualenvwrapper to manage my virtual environments, but I've heard great things on pipenv and thought I would give it a go. It's all great until I try using Python 3.6.0. Flow goes something like this:

$ mkdir test_project && cd test_project
$ pyenv shell 3.6.0
$ pipenv install django
Creating a virtualenv for this project…
Pipfile: /home/user/projects/test_project/Pipfile
Using /home/user/.pyenv/shims/python (3.6.0) to create virtualenv…
⠸ Creating virtual environment...created virtual environment CPython3.8.5.final.0-64 in 130ms
  creator CPython3Posix(dest=/home/user/.local/share/virtualenvs/test_project-eAvoynKo-/home/user, clear=False, global=False)
  seeder FromAppData(download=False, pip=bundle, setuptools=bundle, wheel=bundle, via=copy, app_data_dir=/home/user/.local/share/virtualenv)
    added seed packages: pip==20.2.3, setuptools==50.3.0, wheel==0.35.1
  activators BashActivator,CShellActivator,FishActivator,PowerShellActivator,PythonActivator,XonshActivator

✔ Successfully created virtual environment! 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/bin/pipenv", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(cli())
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 829, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 782, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 1259, in invoke
    return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 1066, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 610, in invoke
    return callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/decorators.py", line 73, in new_func
    return ctx.invoke(f, obj, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 610, in invoke
    return callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/decorators.py", line 21, in new_func
    return f(get_current_context(), *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/cli/command.py", line 252, in install
    site_packages=state.site_packages
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/core.py", line 1928, in do_install
    site_packages=site_packages,
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/core.py", line 580, in ensure_project
    pypi_mirror=pypi_mirror,
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/core.py", line 512, in ensure_virtualenv
    python=python, site_packages=site_packages, pypi_mirror=pypi_mirror
  File "/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pipenv/core.py", line 986, in do_create_virtualenv
    with open(project_file_name, "w") as f:
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/user/.local/share/virtualenvs/test_project-eAvoynKo-/home/user/.pyenv/shims/python/.project'

I came across this previous question Pipenv not recognizing Pyenv version? and set the environment variable PIPENV_PYTHON="$PYENV_ROOT/shims/python in my .bashrc file. to no avail.

Using the system Python version 3.8.5 works flawlessly:

$ pyenv install django
Creating a virtualenv for this project…
Pipfile: /home/user/projects/test_project/Pipfile
Using /home/user/.pyenv/shims/python (3.8.5) to create virtualenv…
⠹ Creating virtual environment...created virtual environment CPython3.8.5.final.0-64 in 114ms
  creator CPython3Posix(dest=/home/user/.local/share/virtualenvs/test_project-eAvoynKo-/home/user/.pyenv/shims/python, clear=False, global=False)
  seeder FromAppData(download=False, pip=bundle, setuptools=bundle, wheel=bundle, via=copy, app_data_dir=/home/user/.local/share/virtualenv)
    added seed packages: pip==20.2.2, setuptools==50.3.0, wheel==0.35.1
  activators BashActivator,CShellActivator,FishActivator,PowerShellActivator,PythonActivator,XonshActivator

✔ Successfully created virtual environment! 
Virtualenv location: /home/user/.local/share/virtualenvs/test_project-eAvoynKo-/home/user/.pyenv/shims/python
Creating a Pipfile for this project…
Installing django…
Adding django to Pipfile's [packages]…
✔ Installation Succeeded 
Pipfile.lock not found, creating…
Locking [dev-packages] dependencies…
Locking [packages] dependencies…
Building requirements...
Resolving dependencies...
✔ Success! 
Updated Pipfile.lock (a6086c)!
Installing dependencies from Pipfile.lock (a6086c)…
  🐍   ▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉ 0/0 — 00:00:00
To activate this project's virtualenv, run pipenv shell.
Alternatively, run a command inside the virtualenv with pipenv run.

Update

While I still can't get it to recognize the python version activated with pyenv shell x.x.x, by removing the PIPENV_PYTHON environment variable, and creating a new virtualenv with pipenv install --python 3.6 pipenv does recognize the pyenv version installed.

Answer 1

There are different version within pyenv in how to set .bashrc. This one worked for me

export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"
export PATH="$HOME/.pyenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init --path)"
eval "$(pyenv init -)"

Answer 2

You can try this to make Pipenv follow the Pyenv Python version:

Direct Pipenv to the Pyenv shim in your shell config file (this is /.zshrc)

export PIPENV_PYTHON="$PYENV_ROOT/shims/python"

Notes:

1. Make sure you have your PYENV_ROOT properly set in your shell config file.

2. You may have to remake your pipfile and pipfile.lock if you created them with another version of python.

The answer came from the Pipenv docs, this Stackoverflow answer, and bani(the other answer to this question).

Answer 3

pipenv doesn't respect pyenv local and pyenv global (reference)

maybe it also doesn't respect pyenv shell

I usually do what you did, specify the python like pipenv install --python 3.7