Quick installation guide

Welcome to the installation guide. Before you can use Socon you will need to install it on your computer. Be sure to check if you have python installed with the correct version which should be >= 3.9.

Install Python

Get the latest version of Python at https://www.python.org/downloads/ or with your operating system’s package manager.

You can verify that Python is installed by typing python from your shell; you should see something like:

Python 3.x.y
...
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Install Socon

Installing an official release

You can install an official release using pip. Pip is the package manager of python. It is used to install/update packages in your environment.

Note

Using pip is the recommended way to install Socon.

  1. Install pip. Pip Usually comes with python and you can check it is already installed by typing python -m pip --version. If you get an error, you can install it using the standalone pip installer.

  2. Create a virtual environment. You can get more information here. For a quick reminder, a virtual environment provides isolated Python environments, which are more practical than installing packages systemwide.

  3. After you created your virtual environment, enter the command:

    $ python -m pip install socon

Installing the development version

Before installing the development version you need to check that you have Git installed and that you can run its commands from a shell. (Enter git help at a shell prompt to test this.)

  1. Clone Socon like so:

    $ git clone https://github.com/socon-dev/socon.git

    This will create a directory socon in your current directory.

  2. Make sure to install Socon in a virtual environment. It’s not mandatory but it will keep your system environment clean. If you don’t know how to do this, read: Development environment

  3. After setting up and activating the virtual environment, cd into the socon directory and:

    $ python -m pip install -e .

Note

pip install -e, install a project in editable mode (i.e. setuptools “develop mode”) from a local project path or a VCS url.

Run git pull when you want to update your code. This command will fetch and update your code with the latest changes.