Is it possible to change python virtualenv name, shown in prompt?

Question

Is there any way to change name, that is shown in prompt, while virtualenv activated?

username@host:~$ python3 -m venv venv
username@host:~$ source venv/bin/activate
(venv) username@host:~$

But i need it to be shown as something like this:

username@host:~$ python3 -m venv venv
username@host:~$ source venv/bin/activate
(some_arbitrary_name) username@host:~$

Answer 1

_{Originally part of the question, written by AlekseyP; removed to form a Community Wiki answer}

---

Prompt name can not be changed after creation, however, there is a way to show some arbitrary name in prompt other than folder name:

username@host:~$ python3 -m venv .venv --prompt some_arbitrary_name
username@host:~$ source venv/bin/activate
(some_arbitrary_name) username@host:~$

Answer 2

The prompt is modified in the bin/activate script, so just change the line that adds (venv). It looks something like this:

if [ -z "${VIRTUAL_ENV_DISABLE_PROMPT:-}" ] ; then
    _OLD_VIRTUAL_PS1="${PS1:-}"
    PS1="(venv) ${PS1:-}"
    export PS1
fi

Just change that (venv) to your name of choice.

Note that in more recent venv versions the above code looks like this:

if [ -z "${VIRTUAL_ENV_DISABLE_PROMPT-}" ] ; then
    _OLD_VIRTUAL_PS1="${PS1-}"
    if [ "x" != x ] ; then
        PS1="() ${PS1-}"
    else
        PS1="(`basename \"$VIRTUAL_ENV\"`) ${PS1-}"
    fi
    export PS1
fi

You can still just replace

(`basename \"$VIRTUAL_ENV\"`)

with a simple string like (my_venv)