Komodoenv is to a Komodo release as what virtualenv is to a Python installation. Komodoenv creates a user-modifiable komodo environment based on an existing komodo release, allowing users to install additional or updated packages without the necessity for ugly hacks.

Komodoenv uses virtualenv at its core.

The easiest way to create a komodoenv is to first enable a komodo release.

$ source /prog/res/komodo/stable/enable
$ komodoenv my-kenv

Now you are able to source my-kenv:

$ source my-kenv/enable
$ which ert  # => [..]/my-kenv/root/shims/ert

$ # Install other packages, which you can use directly, or eg. in an ERT forward model
$ pip install my-package

Note that the newly created my-kenv is a fully-fledged komodo release, meaning you don't need to enable the original before enabling my-kenv. In fact, enabling my-kenv will disable the other komodo release.

Komodoenv doesn't automatically update your environment. It does check if there's an update when enabling, and you'll often be able to run the komodoenv-update command to update your environment to use the latest komodo release packages.