chore: untrack committed developer virtualenv (build-env/) [#106]

[karlwaldman]

Closes #106.

A developer virtualenv was tracked in version control. This removes the tracked entries from the tip of main, adds an ignore rule so a recreated environment is not re-added, and adds a guard test so it cannot regress. No history rewrite; no developer's on-disk environment is deleted.

1. Reproduced on current main

$ git rev-parse HEAD
7982b0b9bbb4a0d9cc5343033baa74abc8224455

$ git ls-tree -r HEAD --name-only | grep -c '^build-env'
49

The 49 entries are 45 launcher scripts under build-env/bin/ (including pip, pip3, pip3.12, pytest, py.test, python, python3, python3.12, black, mypy, ruff, twine, virtualenv, pre-commit, oilprice), the four shell activation scripts (activate, activate.csh, activate.fish, Activate.ps1), build-env/pyvenv.cfg, and the build-env/lib64 symlink. Each launcher carries a shebang with an absolute path to one machine's interpreter.

The local build-env/ directory is 34 MB; only these 49 entries were ever tracked, and only those 49 are in scope here.

2. Nothing in the repository consumes build-env

Search over every tracked file:

$ git grep -n -I -e 'build-env' -e 'build_env' -- . ':(exclude)build-env'
$ echo $?
1

Recursive search over the whole working tree, not just tracked files:

$ grep -rn --binary-files=without-match 'build-env' . --exclude-dir=.git --exclude-dir=build-env
$ echo $?
1

Targeted search of the build/CI surface:

$ grep -rn 'build-env' .github scripts docs
$ echo $?
1

Both greps returned no matches (exit 1). A positive control with the same command shape confirms the invocation works rather than silently matching nothing:

$ git grep -n -I -e 'oilpriceapi' -- . ':(exclude)build-env' | head -3
.env.example:5:# Get your API key at: https://oilpriceapi.com
.env.example:9:# Default: https://api.oilpriceapi.com
.env.example:11:OILPRICEAPI_BASE_URL=https://api.oilpriceapi.com

The other consumers named in the issue do not exist in this repository — there is no Makefile, tox.ini, noxfile.py, setup.py, setup.cfg or .pre-commit-config.yaml. MANIFEST.in and pyproject.toml exist and neither mentions build-env. The five workflows under .github/workflows/ (github-pages.yml, live-tests.yml, publish.yml, test.yml, weekly-health.yml) each create their own environment; none reference the tracked one.

Conclusion: no required consumer. Deletion is safe.

3. Red / green evidence

tests/test_no_tracked_virtualenv.py shells out to git ls-files and asserts that (a) no tracked path sits under a virtualenv directory, (b) no pyvenv.cfg or activation script is tracked anywhere, and (c) git check-ignore covers build-env/, so recreating the environment cannot re-add it.

RED — on the parent commit, with the 49 files still tracked

$ git ls-files | grep -c '^build-env'
49

$ python -m pytest tests/test_no_tracked_virtualenv.py -q
...
E       AssertionError: virtualenv marker files are tracked in git and must be removed: ['build-env/bin/Activate.ps1', 'build-env/bin/activate', 'build-env/bin/activate.csh', 'build-env/bin/activate.fish', 'build-env/pyvenv.cfg']
...
E       AssertionError: 'build-env/bin/pip' is not ignored by .gitignore, so recreating the developer environment would re-add it to version control. git check-ignore said: ''

=========================== short test summary info ============================
FAILED tests/test_no_tracked_virtualenv.py::test_no_virtualenv_directory_is_tracked
FAILED tests/test_no_tracked_virtualenv.py::test_no_virtualenv_marker_files_are_tracked
FAILED tests/test_no_tracked_virtualenv.py::test_gitignore_excludes_the_build_env_directory
============================== 3 failed in 0.07s ===============================

GREEN — after git rm -r --cached build-env and the .gitignore rule

$ python -m pytest tests/test_no_tracked_virtualenv.py -q
collected 3 items

tests/test_no_tracked_virtualenv.py ...                                  [100%]

============================== 3 passed in 0.06s ===============================

The ignore rule is in force, and the developer's environment is still on disk:

$ git ls-files | grep -c '^build-env'
0

$ ls build-env/bin/pip
build-env/bin/pip

$ git check-ignore -v build-env/bin/pip build-env/pyvenv.cfg
.gitignore:114:build-env/	build-env/bin/pip
.gitignore:114:build-env/	build-env/pyvenv.cfg

4. Packaging proof — sdist and wheel contain no virtualenv files

Built with the 34 MB build-env/ still present on disk, so this exercises the realistic developer case:

$ du -sh build-env
 34M	build-env

$ python -m build
Successfully built oilpriceapi-1.14.0.tar.gz and oilpriceapi-1.14.0-py3-none-any.whl

sdist — 79 entries, no virtualenv artifacts:

$ tar -tzf dist/oilpriceapi-1.14.0.tar.gz | wc -l
79

$ tar -tzf dist/oilpriceapi-1.14.0.tar.gz | grep -Ei 'build-env|pyvenv\.cfg|/activate|/bin/'
NONE FOUND

Wheel — 54 entries, two top-level directories, no virtualenv artifacts:

$ python -c "import zipfile; print(len(zipfile.ZipFile('dist/oilpriceapi-1.14.0-py3-none-any.whl').namelist()))"
54

$ # grep the namelist for build-env|pyvenv.cfg|/activate|bin/
NONE FOUND

$ # top-level entries
oilpriceapi
oilpriceapi-1.14.0.dist-info

Clean install of that wheel into a throwaway venv:

$ python3 -m venv smokevenv
$ ./smokevenv/bin/pip install ./repo/dist/oilpriceapi-1.14.0-py3-none-any.whl
$ ./smokevenv/bin/pip show oilpriceapi | head -4
Name: oilpriceapi
Version: 1.14.0
Summary: Official Python SDK for source-timestamped OilPriceAPI energy data
Home-page: https://oilpriceapi.com

$ ./smokevenv/bin/python -c "import oilpriceapi; from oilpriceapi import OilPriceAPI; ..."
version: 1.14.0
client ok: OilPriceAPI | prices resource: PricesResource

$ ./smokevenv/bin/oilprice --version
CLI requires extra dependencies. Install with:
  pip install oilpriceapi[cli]

$ find ./smokevenv/lib -path '*oilpriceapi*' \( -name 'pyvenv.cfg' -o -name 'activate*' -o -name '*build-env*' \) | wc -l
0

The CLI message is the expected behaviour of the base install: oilprice is declared as an entry point and the rich/typer dependencies live in the [cli] extra. The entry point resolves and runs.

5. Full suite

	passed	failed	skipped
clean main (baseline)	864	3	63
this branch	867	3	63

867 = 864 + 3 — the three new guard assertions. The same three failures appear on both sides: tests/integration/test_demo_contract.py makes live calls to the demo endpoint and is receiving HTTP 429. Environmental, unrelated to this change, unchanged by it.

Diff shape

 .gitignore                          |   3 +
 tests/test_no_tracked_virtualenv.py |  99 +++++++++++++++
 49 build-env/ entries               | 734 ------------------------------
 51 files changed, 102 insertions(+), 734 deletions(-)

Nothing else is touched. No source file, no pyproject.toml dependency declaration, no version bump (stays at 1.14.0), no history rewrite.

Scope and constraints

• Deletion is from the tip only — no filter-branch, no filter-repo. The blobs remain in history; this PR removes them from the working tree going forward.
• git rm -r --cached was used, so no developer loses their actual environment.
• Do not merge until the issue's approval gate is satisfied. Not published to PyPI.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_015ao5paex73xXvuM424Libo

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