Why can't I "deactivate" pyenv / virtualenv? How to "fix" installation

I am on a freshly installed Ubuntu 16.04 and in view of developing with recent versions of pandas I installed Python 3.6.0 using a virtual environment. A reason for choosing 3.6.0 was because I read somewhere that this version of Python could deal with virtual environments natively, i.e. without installing anything else [anyway to install 3.6.0 itself without replacing the system wide Python, which would have been almost surely wrong, I actually had to provide a virtual environment before]. I did it optimistically thinking that everything would go in the right direction (including my knowledge) and so, without caring too much about the differences between: pyenv, pyenv-virtualenv, pyvenv, etc... So I don't remember well what I installed, anyway I used only `apt` and `pip`/`pip3`, trying to confine changes within the virtualenv as soon as it became available. I loosely followed this tutorial except (maybe) that I didn't create a directory for the virtualenvs (the `$ mkdir ~/.virtualenvs` command). Now my user is stuck within the `(general)` environment and I can't get out. Situation Right from the start after the login, without activating any environment, Bash gives me a modified prompt, and it seems I can't get the usual prompt by `deactivate`, `source deactivate`, etc... ``` (general) $ deactivate pyenv-virtualenv: deactivate must be sourced. Run 'source deactivate' instead of 'deactivate' (general) $ source deactivate pyenv-virtualenv: deactivate 3.6.0/envs/general (general) $ pyvenv deactivate pyenv: pyvenv: command not found The `pyvenv` command exists in these Python versions: 3.6.0 (general) $ ``` You see that the `(general)` prefix remains in the prompt. I have also had symptoms that this `pyenv`/`virtualenv` setup is affecting system activities (e.g. while trying to install `hplip` from the command line, the installer got confused when trying to recognize my OS, and ultimately failed - I had to do it from another user, and then it worked), so I need to revert this to a clean state. NB. I am not that sure that my installation is really that wrong, maybe it's just me issuing the wrong commands or some common pitfall I have incurred in. The questions - How can I `deactivate` the (general) environment? - How can I tell if my installation is wrong, and how can I fix it? - Wow can I safely revert from this installation and get to a more proper one? I have already read this question but it wasn't so tied to my case This one seems more related, in that it highlights that - `python venv` should be preferred; - it is available on Python >=3.3; - Ubuntu Xenial doesn't have it already installed by default; - it gives package names to install it. But still I am unsure of what to uninstall before installing them in case. More info Here are the outputs of TAB completions, commands, and a directory listing, to show a bit of which environment I am in: ``` (general) $ cat .py <TAB> .pyenv/ .python_history (general) $ cat .pyenv/ <TAB> .agignore completions/ LICENSE shims/ versions/ bin/ CONDUCT.md Makefile src/ .vimrc cache/ .git/ plugins/ test/ CHANGELOG.md .gitignore pyenv.d/ .travis.yml COMMANDS.md libexec/ README.md version (general) $ cat .pyenv/version general (general) $ ls -l ~/.pyenv/versions totale 12 drwxrwxr-x 3 myuser myuser 4096 apr 20 13:50 ./ drwxrwxr-x 13 myuser myuser 4096 apr 20 13:50 ../ drwxr-xr-x 7 myuser myuser 4096 apr 20 13:50 3.6.0/ lrwxrwxrwx 1 myuser myuser 48 apr 20 13:50 general -> /home/myuser/.pyenv/versions/3.6.0/envs/general/ ``` I tried listing what installed, but I'm afraid that with `pip3 list` the answer I get is for the env where I am stuck, and that this is masking anything that I installed before getting to it. May it just be that I mistakenly installed `pyenv` from my home directory? Would it be enough to delete/move the `.pyenv` directory? I am not confident enough to do it without asking.