uv init test fails if a directory ~<user>/.venv with no pyvenv.cfg is found

[pelamlio]

uv version 0.4.20
Linux Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS

When transitioning (previously using venv, not virtualenv), uv does not find any pyvenv.cfg file directly under the .venv directory and generates an error:

uv init test
error: Broken virtualenv /home/<user>/.venv: pyvenv.cfg is missing

Should the directory be removed or an empty pyvenv.cfg be created at the root of ~/.venv, the command completes as expected.

[charliermarsh]

What do you find to be wrong here? In other words, what behavior would you expect to see?

[pelamlio]

Not sure whether I can provide a clean answer.

In part, my issue was related to migrating to uv from an pre-existing development environment, and having a very limited knowledge of uv.
Should other users take the same path, they might trigger the same behavior (subdirectories per env in the .venv directory).

Per the documentation (https://docs.astral.sh/uv/guides/projects/), it was not immediately clear that uv init would need an venv to be defined ab initio. More so, when the .venv could be created in the said project later (same url; Project structure).

My 2 cents.

[jramcast]

Same problem here. I personally use the $HOME/.venv directory to store regular venvs for other projects.

[bluss]

I was thinking, here are some steps to reproduce:

mkdir myroot
cd myroot
uv venv .venv/a
uv venv .venv/b
uv init testproject

The error from uv init is:

error: Broken virtualenv `/home/user/myroot/.venv`: `pyvenv.cfg` is missing

This could be a bug because: there shouldn't be a problem with .venv and testproject coexisting, and I don't think there is a problem if they are created in opposite order?