“pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The ‘platformdirs=2’ distribution was not found and is required by virtualenv” Error in Python

While creating a virtual environment, basically $ virtualenv venv comment may not work because of the python version installed on the machine. It can cause the error below;

  File "/usr/local/bin/virtualenv", line 6, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3241, in <module>
    @_call_aside
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3225, in _call_aside
    f(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3254, in _initialize_master_working_set
    working_set = WorkingSet._build_master()
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 585, in _build_master
    return cls._build_from_requirements(__requires__)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 598, in _build_from_requirements
    dists = ws.resolve(reqs, Environment())
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 786, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req, requirers)
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The 'platformdirs<3,>=2' distribution was not found and is required by virtualenv```

The best way is to run the command and create a virtual environment in MacOS is to run the command below;

$ python3 -m virtualenv venv

Leave a Reply