I'm a front-end developer with zero server-side experience. I'm trying to learn a little python for an app I'm building, and I literally cannot find anywhere that makes it easy to install easy_install. Everything I read is full of lingo I don't get, like using homebrew or PATHs. And pypi.python.org is TERRIBLY written and designed. So far it's only sent me in circles.
I'm looking for a simple set of instructions in the following format:
Go to x website and click x link
Type x into the terminal and run
Type x to be sure it's installed properly
Please for the benefit of myself and the whole internet, can someone provide this? I'm definitely up for learning how to do some things the hard way, but Python isn't something I need to know very thoroughly right now, and I imagine that's the case for others just looking to get their feet wet.
Assume I have Python installed, but not that I know anything else about using it.
(If there really is a resource out there like this that exists, let me know... I just haven't seen anything like it yet and I've been googling around for about an hour.)
Thank you!
easy_install is part of setuptools. For a while, distribute was a separate fork of setuptools that included its own easy_install, and you had to put a bit of thought into which one you wanted, but that's no longer an issue; the two have merged back into one project. So, the question is, how do you get setuptools?
If you're using Apple's pre-installed versions of Python, you already have setuptools, with a working easy_install, for all versions. You can also use easy_install-2.5, etc., for the earlier versions of Python that Apple also pre-installs. So there's nothing to do.
If you're using a Homebrew Python, it automatically installs setuptools by default, so again, nothing to do.
If you're using a third-party package manager that doesn't automatically install setuptools (as at least was true for MacPorts last time I checked), it probably has its own package for python32-setuptools or python32-easy-install or something like that.
Most of the "extra-batteries" distributions (ActiveState, Enthought, etc.) of Python similarly include setuptools, so again, nothing to do.
If you're using a Python.org binary, a custom-built Python with default configuration, etc., the standard setuptools instructions for "Unix-based Systems including Mac OS X" work fine.
If you installed Python somewhere you don't have write access, you will need to sudo the installation step, as in the second variant.
So:
wget https://bitbucket.org/pypa/setuptools/raw/bootstrap/ez_setup.py -O - | sudo python
And that's all there is to it.
All that being said, you almost never want to use easy_install, except to install two things:
readline, to replace the fake libedit-based support with real libreadline-based support. (And any other packages that don't work with pip, but this is the only really popular one.)
pip, so you never need to use easy_install again.
Most of the cases above that include setuptools also include pip; the one exception is Apple pre-installed Python, where sudo easy_install pip is the simplest way to get pip.
For the cases that don't come with either, the standard documentation for installing pip also works:
Install or upgrade setuptools (as above) if you have a version older than 0.7.
Download get-pip.py.
python get-pip.py
Again, sudo if you need to, and replace the python with python3.3 or python2.6 or /opt/local/mypython/bin/python or whatever to install for any non-default versions.
Finally, for upgrading, once you have any version of pip, and setuptools 0.7 or later, it's as easy as you could imagine:
pip install --upgrade setuptools pip
Again, sudo if necessary, and pip-3.3 or whatever if necessary.
Note that to make easy_install or pip actually useful, you may need a compiler toolchain. The easy way to do this is to install Xcode from the Mac App Store (free as of late 2013), launch Xcode, open Preferences, go to Downloads, and install the "Command Line Tools". This is sufficient for almost everything you'd ever want to do.
The one major exception is SciPy and related packages, for which you will also need a Fortran compiler. See this blog post for Python 2.x and this one for 3.x for details. If all of that looks scary to you, you may be happier using Enthought or one of the other pre-packaged scientific distributions.
One last thing: If you installed a non-Apple Python, and then upgraded your OS X (or Homebrew or MacPorts or Enthought or …) to a newer major version (e.g., from OS X 10.8 to 10.9), you may need some extra steps. For every case but OS X itself, they should be documented on the home page for whichever package manager or Python distribution you're using. For an OS X upgrade, reinstalling your third-party Python is usually the simplest solution if you run into a problem (after first verifying that you actually need a third-party Python in the first place), even if it means you have to reinstall your site packages.
The short correct answer is don't use EasyInstall.
Use pip!
Related
When I use pip install matplotlib --upgrade it runs and installs matplotlib and all dependicies, and at the end reads uninstalled version '1.3.1'. Running python and matplotlib.__version__ outputs '1.3.1' again, even though it was just declared uninstalled. How do I switch which python I'm running from, which would hopefully be where pip is installing and updating packages?
Edit: Running Mac OS 10.10.1, using python from bash.
which pip returns /usr/local/bin/pip and which -a python returns
/opt/local/bin/python
/opt/local/bin/python
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin/python
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin/python
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin/python
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/bin/python
/usr/bin/python
which I'm assuming is the problem. I've deleted 2.6 before, but my Mac uses it and I had to restore my OS. How do I switch amongst them.
Your problem appears to be that you have two or more Python 2.7 installations, and the first python on the PATH comes from one installation (the MacPorts version, at /opt/local/bin/python), while the first pip on the PATH comes from a different one (you haven't said which, but I'd guess it's /usr/local/bin/pip, and it's attached to either the pre-installed Apple Python or yet another Python).
If you want to have lots of Pythons installed all over the filesystem and switch among them without using virtualenv, you just need to write some scripts with modify your PATH. (And your PYTHONPATH, if you use one… but hopefully you don't.)
But I wouldn't recommend that. If you want to use the MacPorts Python:
Make sure you have the MacPorts pip installed (it should be in /opt/local/bin/pip). I don't know if MacPorts has a separate python-pip package, or expects you to install it manually, or otherwise.
If you don't know how to rehash your shell cache, just open a new Terminal window after getting the MacPorts pip installed. Or, to be safe, just explicitly use /opt/local/bin/pip until the next time you logout and back in.
When you write scripts, you may want to #!/opt/local/bin/python instead of #!/usr/bin/env python.
Uninstall every other Python except the MacPorts one and the pre-installed Apple ones.
Any packages you accidentally installed for other Python installations, just reinstall them for MacPorts. Also, you should usually check for ports first, like port install python-ipython or port install python27-ipython, and only fall back to pip if there is no portfile.
As a side note, many people who have this problem also have MacPorts colliding with Homebrew (or sometimes Fink, gentoo-alt, or other package managers, but none of them are very common nowadays). If you're using two such package managers, you really, really shouldn't be unless you know what you're doing. I'd disable one entirely (at least take it off your PATH, if not uninstall it). You will likely have to rebuild a bunch of stuff after you do so, but it's better than having a bunch of stuff that kind of sometimes works…
My problem is that pip won't update my Python Packages, even though there are no errors.
It is similar to this one, but I am still now sure what to do. Basically, ALL my packages for python appear to be ridiculously outdated, even after updating everything via pip. Here are the details:
I am using pip, version 1.5.6.
I am using Python, version 2.7.5
I am on a Mac OSX, verion 10.9.5.
Using that, I have:
My numpy version is 1.6.2.
My scipy version is 0.11.0.
My matplotlib version is 1.1.1.
Even after I try:
sudo pip uninstall numpy
Followed by:
sudo pip install numpy
They both complete successfully, but when I go into python and check the version of numpy, it is still the old one. (As are all the other packages).
Not sure what is going on here?... How can this be fixed? P.S. I am new to this, so I might need explicit instructions. Thanks. Also, if anyone wants, I can provide a screenshot of pip as it is installing numpy.
EDIT:
Commands I ran as per the comments:
$which -a pip
/usr/local/bin/pip
$ head -1 $(which pip)
#!/usr/bin/python
$ which -a python
/usr/bin/python
In OS X 10.9, Apple's Python comes with a bunch of pre-installed extra packages, in a directory named /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python. Including numpy.
And the way they're installed (as if by using easy_install with an ancient pre-0.7 version of setuptools, but not into either of the normal easy_install destinations), pip doesn't know anything about them.
So, what happens is that sudo pip install numpy installs a separate copy of numpy into '/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages'—but in your sys.path, the Extras directory comes before the site-packages directory, so import numpy still finds Apple's copy. I'm not sure why that is, but it's probably not something you want to monkey with.
So, how do you fix this?
The two best solutions are:
Use virtualenv, and install your numpy and friends into a virtual environment, instead of system-wide. This has the downside that you have to learn how to use virtualenv—but that's definitely worth doing at some point, and if you have the time to learn it now, go for it.
Upgrade to Python 3.x, either from a python.org installer or via Homebrew. Python 3.4 or later comes with pip, and doesn't come with any pip-unfriendly pre-installed packages. And, unlike installing a separate 2.7, it doesn't interfere with Apple's Python at all; python3 and python, pip3 and pip, etc., will all be separate programs, and you don't have to learn anything about how PATH works or any of that. This has the downside that you have to learn Python 3.x, which has some major changes, so again, a bit of a learning curve, but again, definitely worth doing at some point.
Assuming neither of those is possible, I think the simplest option is to use easy_install instead of pip, for the packages you want to install newer versions of any of Apple's "extras". You can get a full list of those by looking at what's in /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python. When you upgrade numpy, you probably also want to upgrade scipy and matplotlib; I think everything else there is unrelated. (You can of course upgrade PyObjC or dateutil or anything else you care about there, but you don't have to.)
This isn't an ideal solution; there are a lot of reasons easy_install is inferior to pip (e.g., not having an uninstaller, so you're going to have to remember where that /Library/blah/blah path is (or find it again by printout out sys.path from inside Python). I wouldn't normally suggest easy_install for anything except readline and pip itself (and then only with Apple's Python). But in this case, I think it's simpler than the other alternatives.
Old question, but I found it when trying to solve this issue, will post my solution.
I found #abarnert's diagnosis to be correct and helpful, but I don't like any of the solutions: I really want to upgrade the default version of numpy. The challenge is that the directory these guys are in (which #abarnert mentioned) cannot be touched even by sudo, as they are in this "wheel" group. In fact, if you go there and do sudo rm -rf blah, it will give you a permission denied error.
To get around this, we have to take drastic action:
Reboot the computer in recovery mode
Find the terminal and type csrutil disable
Reboot normally, then upgrade numpy with pip2 install --user --upgrade numpy (and same for any other packages that have this problem)
Repeat steps a and b, this time changing "disable" to "enable"
Note: "csrutil disable" is serious business that can destabilize your machine, I would use it only when absolutely necessary and re-enable it ASAP. But AFAIK it's the only way to upgrade Python packages in a wheel directory.
Rename the numpy and scipy versions installed by Apple in /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/ so it starts using the newer versions installed by Pip.
I wish to install python numpy, scipy, and matplotlib packages. I used the following:
sudo port install py27-numpy py27-scipy py27-matplotlib py27-ipython +notebook py27-pandas py27-sympy py27-nose
I was able to install and run numpy, but not scipy or matplotlib. I get an error, "No module named scipy", even though installation appeared to proceed normally. I suspect that this has something to do with the version of scipy and bumpy. I am running OS X Version 10.8.4, python 2.7.2 and numpy 1.6.1. I suspect the problem is either the version or the directory which scipy is installed; scipy is in /Users/myname/src/scipy. I couldn't find out where numpy is located (how can this be done? Spotlight search does not indicate file directory, and grep hangs). How can I install scipy and other packages?
It's hard to be 100% sure without a little more information, but I'm 99% sure…
Your problem is that you're installing all this stuff for the MacPorts Python, but then trying to run Apple's Python, which doesn't have any of it installed. (Part of the reason I suspect this is that Apple's Python is version 2.7.2, while MacPorts has been on 2.7.5 for a long time now. The other part of the reason is that this is exactly the same kind of problem people have when they install two different Python X.Y versions without realizing that's what they're doing.)
If you want to use the MacPorts Python, run /opt/local/bin/python instead of just python.
If you know what you're doing, you can change your PATH, or create a symlink, etc., but I suspect you will just confuse yourself further.
I personally think you'd be a lot happier just sticking to Apple's Python. You need to install a Fortran compiler with MacPorts (or Homebrew, or manually, or …), but to install Python packages, just use pip.
(At this point, that last bit of advice probably won't help you, as the first pip on your PATH is probably the MacPorts one, and doesn't match the first python on your PATH. But if you're willing to start over, just port uninstall python, and then look at these blog posts or the dozens of related questions here on SO.)
I am not a total newbie but I am trying to install modules for quite a long time and at this point i would like to have a fresh start and install python and all the modules I need so i really understand them. My problem is that some of them import, but most of them install either to the wrong site-packages or dont import maybe because i messed up my system/python. Also I tried the PYTHONPATH and PATH to set this up right, but it never worked.
So my questions are:
Is there a way to ensure I can clean everything up and start from zero ?
Ideally this would be without having to set up Mac OSX new.
Is there a way to install all the modules in the correct place (whatever the directory is I dont care, it should just work)?
Is there a good step-by-step description on how installing modules works. And I dont mean just the info to use easy_install, pip install etc, but a way to fully understand what I need to consider, where I need to put them, why these modules are recognized in certain directories, how the system finds them and most important what are the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them.
I also tried Macports and various other similiar ways to install but even if some of them worked and while I am sure that these are really great tools, most I had to hack to work.
So if someone can recommend a good and stable way to install a lot of modules at once, this would be incredibly useful.
Thanks a lot !!!!
And sorry for the long questions.
Buildout and virtualenv should be what you are looking for.
Buildout helps you configure a python installation and virtualenv allows you to isolate multiple different configurations from each other.
Here's a nice blog post explaining how to use them together.
Also, see this other question: Buildout and Virtualenv
You can safely install an up-to-date Python 2 and/or Python 3 on OS X using the python.org installers here. They will coexist with any other Pythons you have installed or that were shipped by Apple with OS X. To install packages, for each Python instance first install Distribute which will install a version-specific easy_install command, i.e. easy_install-2.7 or easy_install-3.2. Many people prefer to use pip to manage packages; you can use easy_install to install a version-specific copy of it. If you want something fancier, you could also install virtualenv but, with the isolation provided by Python framework builds on OS X, that isn't as necessary as on most other platforms.
Is there a way to install all the modules in the correct place?
Download and untar/gunzip/etc the module source (Most of the modules ares available in gzip form at http://pypi.python.org/pypi), then run configure with --prefix set to the same thing for every install:
[ 11:06 jon#hozbox.com ~ ]$ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
/usr/local is usually the default, but it doesn't hurt to specify it and will ensure that every module you install will be placed in /usr/local/lib/python/...
Is there a good step-by-step description on how installing modules works?
The Python website has a great page called: Installing Python Modules
http://pypi.python.org/pypi
http://docs.python.org/install/index.html
A colleague of mine wants to use my python 2 code on his OS X (10.6) machine. My code imports several built-in python packages, including Tkinter and shelve, and also uses third-party packages, including numpy, scipy, matplotlib, and ipython.
I've encountered a few problems with OS X's built-in python. (IDLE doesn't work, for example*). I suspect I should install a more recent version of python, and a different version of Tk.
My questions:
Will having two different versions of python/Tk on the same machine cause problems?
I would like to associate the terminal commands 'python', 'ipython', and 'easy_install' with the more recent version of python. How should I do this?
When I install third-party packages like numpy using a .dmg file, how do I control which version of python numpy installs into?
Is there a better way to do this?
If this process goes well, I'd consider adding OS X instructions to my code's documentation, so I'd like to boil down this process to the simplest, most general approach.
*EDIT: Also, this
EDIT: Thank you everyone for the useful answers. My colleague tried MacPorts, which seems to work well, but has a few speedbumps. First we had to install Xcode from the system install disk. This is not a fast or lightweight install (several GB). Luckily we still had the disk! Once Xcode was installed, MacPorts was easy to install. Python and the python subpackages we needed were also easy to install, but he told me this installation took several hours. Presumably this delay is due to compilation? He had an easy time setting the MacPorts python as default. However, I think we have to change the 'Python Launcher' application by hand, this seems to still default to the system python.
Even though he has a working system now, I'm tempted to ask him to try one of the other solutions. I'm not sure all of my code's potential users will tolerate a multi-hour, multi-gigabyte installation.
I use brew to install all my libraries/compilers/interpreters.
To install python try this:
brew install python
Then add Python's binaries directory to your $PATH in your ~/.profile:
export PATH=`brew --prefix python`/bin:$PATH
I'd recommend you to install pip, virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper to have better control over your environment too.
Have you tried ActivePython?
It includes a package manager (PyPM) that, by default, installs into your home directory (eg: ~/Library/Python/2.7). Main scripts get symlinked in /usr/local/bin; use the included pythonselect to set the active Python version.
You don't have to bother installing .dmg packages, as PyPM is a binary package manager ... therefore you can install non-pure Python packages like NumPy without having to compile things yourself.
ActivePython can use Apple's Tcl/Tk or, if installed, ActiveTcl.
A "simplest, most general approach" in your documentation could be:
Install ActivePython 2.7
Open Terminal and type pypm-2.7 install matplotlib ipython
Using MacPorts, you can install python 2.6, 2.7, 3.1 and 3.2 at the same time, with their own packages, without ever touching the built-in python.
numpy, scipy, matplotlib, and ipython are also available as ports for most of those python versions.
Moreover, if you install the python_select port, you'll be able:
to choose which one of those (plus the built-in python) is the "default" python;
to install python packages through easy_install/pip for the "selected" python, if they're not available as ports.
Add virtualenv to the mix, and you'll have a very, very flexible Python development environment.
As for your questions:
Q1: with MacPorts, no. while not a frequent user, I've installed and used matplotlib in 2.6 and 2.7, switching between the two using python_select.
Q2: easy_install, pip, ipython will be "linked" to the python they were installed by. (but see tip 1)
Q3: it's easier to install one of the py{26,27,xx}-numpy ports, or pip install numpy under your python_select'ed python.
Q4: well, MacPorts is the best thing I know after APT on Debian/Ubuntu... :-)
Now, two tips if you try MacPorts:
MacPorts cleanly installs ports separately from the OS X installation, in an /opt/local directory, and each python version is installed in a /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/{2.5,2.6,2.7,...} directory. Using python_select cleanly switch the "python" command using links. BUT... the Versions/{2.5,2.6,2.7,...}/bin directory, where python scripts are installed, is not added to the PATH. Just adding: export PATH=/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin:$PATH to your ~/.profile will always give you direct access to the scripts installed for the selected python.
to avoid bad surprises, I've added a echo Selected python is \"$(python_select -s)\" line to my ~/.profile, so I always know which is my currently selected python when opening a session... :-)
Regards,
Georges
In almost all cases, the best python to use is the one from http://python.org/. It sets up the paths correctly and doesn't overwrite anything. DMG package installs usually work automatically, as does python setup.py install, and it's not too hard to get setuptools to work. If you want per-user installs, it is easy to set up .pydistutils.cfg and python automatically recognizes the path install_lib = ~/Library/Python/$py_version_short/site-packages
An addendum regarding the usage of brew:
Since some time, brew install python will install python3.
If you intend to install python2, you want to use
brew install python#2
It is perfectly fine to install both python and python3 using brew!
Here is an old post that answers your questions too.
In general it is not a problem at all to have more than one python installation on your machine. You just have to watch out which one you are calling on the command line.
>> which python
... helps to identify where your python binary is located. The original Mac OS X python is usually at "/usr/bin/python"
I personally use the MacPorts python installation. It also supports you with the installation of modules. (see link above)
I have 4 versions of python on my MacBook Pro. 2 from the original install of OS X 10.6 and a subsequent update, then self installed copies of python 2.7 and 3.2. You can update the python command to point at any of the versions. They all install in separate directories and cause no problems with each other.
I'm not sure what will happen when you install from a .dmg file. I believe it will simply use whatever version python points to.
This post on superuser.com answers your questions on changing default paths.