how to deploy unique Python venvs per user?

[luke_jaeger]

I have a Mac lab running Catalina and Python 3.x (multiple versions) from python.org, not Apple's built-in Python.
We would like to deploy Python virtual environments as follows— the first 2 are easy enough but I'm stuck on #3:

• one shared standard user account per course (cs100, cs110 cs120, etc)
• each user account has its own Python virtual env in its home directory
• each user account has its $PATH set so that when the user types python3 in Terminal.app, it invokes the appropriate python executable from the virtual env in that user's home directory (eg /Users/cs100/my/venv/bin/python3) 
• this should work in both bash and zsh
• we would like the activation of the virtual env to be automatic and invisible to the user — these are intro-level students and the goal is to get their hands on Python with minimal setup

Additionally, we'll need a script to return the user space to clean state at login, but that shouldn't be hard.

[luke_jaeger]

not surprisingly, the hard part was easy and the easy part is hard.

I’ve got the Python virtualenvs under control. Now I’m fighting with a bash script to reset the user home to a clean state on login.

This script runs fine when I run it as one of the shared-account users (eg “cs_111”), but when I try to run it as a LaunchAgent upon user login, I get permission errors and the rsync command fails every time.

Here’s the script:

#!/bin/bash

## variable setup
## set the userList
userList=/Library/CS_lab_items/users
## who's logging in?
theUser=$(whoami)

## create the courses group if it doesn't already exist

groupExists=$(dscl . list /Groups | grep cs_courses) ;
if test -z "$groupExists"
then
echo "group does not exist; creating group"
/usr/bin/dscl . -create /Groups/cs_courses
/usr/bin/dscl . -append /Groups/cs_courses RealName 'CS_course_accounts'
else
echo "group already exists"
fi

## get all CS Course Account usernames & dump to text file

/usr/bin/dscl . -list /Users | grep cs_ > "$userList" ;

## add all CS Course Account users to group

while read thisUser; do
/usr/bin/dscl . -append /Groups/cs_courses GroupMembership "$thisUser" ;
done < "$userList" ;

# who's logging in and are they in 'courses' group?
if grep -q "$theUser" "$userList" ; then

## nuke the userspace & create clean from user template
/usr/local/bin/rsync -rltvh --delete --force --ignore-errors '/Library/User Template/Non_localized'/* /Users/"$theUser"/
## copy any specific per-user items
/usr/local/bin/rsync -rltvh /Library/CS_lab_items/"$theUser"/* /Users/"$theUser"/

fi