Here we describe how to install all the required Python packages using the Linux distribution package manager for Debian-based systems (such as Ubuntu). You must have root access to use this installation method.
For a modern linux installation such as Ubuntu 11, the system Python version will be 2.6 or newer and all of the required core packages are available as package installs. The instructions below have been developed and tested with Ubuntu 11. Corresponding packages for recent Fedora are probably available but this has not been verified.
The benefit of using a root install via the system package manager is that it is simple and all dependencies are managed for you. The downside is that the package versions tend to be older and so you don’t keep up with the latest code development. In Ubuntu 11 the core packages (NumPy, Matplotlib) are a little out date, but unless you are really pushing for the latest features, the older stable versions will work perfectly well.
First install the core packages for analysis with the following:
sudo apt-get install python-dev
sudo apt-get install ipython
sudo apt-get install python-numpy
sudo apt-get install python-scipy
sudo apt-get install python-matplotlib
sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
sudo apt-get install python-pyfits
Most of the remaining packages are not available in the package manager, so we install them using the Python package manager pip. To install pip:
sudo apt-get install python-pip
Then:
sudo pip install --upgrade distribute [--proxy web-proxy:3128]
sudo pip install asciitable [--proxy web-proxy:3128]
sudo pip install pywcs [--proxy web-proxy:3128]
sudo pip install atpy [--proxy web-proxy:3128]
sudo pip install aplpy [--proxy web-proxy:3128]
sudo pip install pyregion [--proxy web-proxy:3128]
sudo pip install pyparsing [--proxy web-proxy:3128]
sudo pip install http://stsdas.stsci.edu/astrolib/vo-0.6.tar.gz [--proxy web-proxy:3128]
sudo pip install http://stsdas.stsci.edu/astrolib/coords-0.37.tar.gz [--proxy web-proxy:3128]
where the [–proxy web-proxy:3128] option may be required if you are within the MPIA network.
Open a new terminal window and type:
which ipython
You should see:
/usr/bin/ipython
Once you’ve installed EPDFree you can install the additional packages listed in Python requirements. Copy and paste the lines applicable to your system one at a time, checking that each one works. The program outputs may contain various “warnings” which can be ignored, but watch for “errors” and look at the end to see if a successful installation was reported.
sudo easy_install –upgrade pip sudo pip install –upgrade distribute pip install –user asciitable pip install –user pyfits pip install –user pywcs pip install –user atpy pip install –user aplpy pip install –user pyregion pip install –user pyparsing pip install –user http://stsdas.stsci.edu/astrolib/vo-0.6.tar.gz pip install –user http://stsdas.stsci.edu/astrolib/coords-0.37.tar.gz
To do a very basic test whether you meet the requirements and have a functioning core scientific Python installation, do the following to check version numbers. First on the command line check the version numbers of python and ipython:
python -V
ipython --version
Then run ipython from the command line with the --pylab flag:
ipython --pylab
and inside ipython run the following python commands:
import numpy
import scipy
import scipy.linalg
import pylab as plt
print numpy.__version__
print scipy.__version__
print matplotlib.__version__
x = numpy.linspace(0, 20, 100)
plt.plot(x, sin(x))
print scipy.linalg.eig([[1, 2], [3, 4]])
The commands above should succeed with no errors. The version numbers should meet the requirements, and finally you should see a plot of a sine wave.
To check the other required packages, do the following also from within ipython:
import asciitable
import pyfits
import pywcs
import atpy
import aplpy
If all the above commands ran without errors, you’ve installed everything successfully!