title: creating a virtualenv gives a permission denied
body: <p>I'm trying to create a virtualenv, but I'm getting a Permission denied error. I'm using the following code</p>
  
  <pre><code>python2.7 -m virtualenv -p `which python2.7` test
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Which gives this error message: </p>
  
  <p>--edit-- </p>
  
  <p>I get a permission denied error </p>
  
  <pre><code>Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-9.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/basecommand.py", line 215, in main
      status = self.run(options, args)
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-9.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/commands/install.py", line 342, in run
      prefix=options.prefix_path,
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-9.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/req/req_set.py", line 784, in install
      **kwargs
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-9.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/req/req_install.py", line 851, in install
      self.move_wheel_files(self.source_dir, root=root, prefix=prefix)
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-9.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/req/req_install.py", line 1064, in move_wheel_files
      isolated=self.isolated,
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-9.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/wheel.py", line 345, in move_wheel_files
      clobber(source, lib_dir, True)
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-9.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/wheel.py", line 287, in clobber
      ensure_dir(dest)  # common for the 'include' path
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv_support/pip-9.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/utils/__init__.py", line 83, in ensure_dir
      os.makedirs(path)
    File "/home/marco/development/openplus/lambda/resizeTestSam/test/lib/python2.7/os.py", line 152, in makedirs
      makedirs(head, mode)
    File "/home/marco/development/openplus/lambda/resizeTestSam/test/lib/python2.7/os.py", line 159, in makedirs
      mkdir(name, mode)
  OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/lib/python2.7'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and a final error the operation failed</p>
  
  <pre><code>...Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...done.
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 2328, in &lt;module&gt;
      main()
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 713, in main
      symlink=options.symlink)
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 945, in create_environment
      download=download,
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 901, in install_wheel
      call_subprocess(cmd, show_stdout=False, extra_env=env, stdin=SCRIPT)
    File "/home/marco/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv.py", line 797, in call_subprocess
      % (cmd_desc, proc.returncode))
  OSError: Command /home/marco/developm...m/test/bin/python2.7 - setuptools pip wheel failed with error code 2
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>To debug the error in <code>os.py</code>, I've added a print statement, it looks like the script tries to make the directories <code>/lib/python2.7 and /lib/python2.7/site-packages</code>. I don't understand why virtualenv tries to create these directories there and not in my current directory. </p>
  
  <p>I've installed virtualenv without sudo, so I don't expect it to create directories in a path that is owned by root. </p>
  
  <p>In the end only the python executable is copied to the 'test' directory, but not setuptools, pip and wheels. </p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to avoid virtualenv from accessing root owned directories? </p>
  
  <p>--update-- </p>
  
  <p>using python3 with venv works fine, the problem is with virtualenv specifically. </p>
  
  <p>Executing virtualenv from my home directory give no error.</p>