Installing StructuredData

Parts of StructuredData

StructuredData consists of scripts, python modules and documentation files.

StructuredData is available as tar.gz or zip file and on pypi. The sections below describe all installation options.

Requirements

StructuredData requires at least Python version 3.2.3 or newer.

StructuredData is tested on debian and Fedora linux distributions but should run on all linux distributions. It probably also runs on other flavours of unix, probably even MacOS, but this is not tested.

It may run on windows, escpecially the Cygwin environment, but this is also not tested.

Install from pypi with pip

In order to install StructuredData with pip, you use the command 1:

pip install YAML-StructuredData
1

You may have to use pip3 or pip-3.2 or a similar command instead of pip on your system to use python 3.

You find documentation for the usage of pip at Installing Python Modules.

Install from source (tar.gz or zip file)

Download the file from here:

unpack the tar.gz file with:

tar -xzf <PACKAGENAME>

or unpack the zip file with:

unzip <PACKAGENAME>

The StructuredData distribution contains the install script “setup.py”. If you install StructuredData from source you always invoke this script with some command line options.

The following chapters are just examples how you could install StructuredData. For a complete list of all possibilities see https://docs.python.org/3/installing/index.html#installing-index.

Install with:

python3 setup.py [options]

Whenever python is mentioned in a command line in the following text remember that you may have to use python3 instead.

Install as root to default directories

This method will install StructuredData on your systems default python library and binary directories.

Advantages:

  • You don’t have to modify environment variables in order to use StructuredData.

  • All users on your machine can easily use StructuredData.

Disadvantages:

  • You must have root or administrator permissions to install StructuredData.

  • Files of StructuredData are mixed with other files from your system in the same directories making it harder to uninstall StructuredData.

For installing StructuredData this way, as user “root” enter:

python setup.py install

Install to a separate directory

In this case all files of StructuredData will be installed to a separate directory.

Advantages:

  • All StructuredData files are below a directory you specify, making it easy to uninstall StructuredData.

  • If you have write access that the directory, you don’t need root or administrator permissions.

Disadvantages:

  • Each user on your machine who wants to use StructuredData must have the correct settings of the environment variables PATH and PYTHONPATH.

For installing StructuredData this way, enter:

python setup.py install --prefix <DIR>

where <DIR> is your install directory.

In order to use StructuredData, you have to change the environment variables PATH and PYTHONPATH. Here is an example how you could do this:

export PATH=<DIR>/bin:$PATH
export PYTHONPATH=<DIR>/lib/python<X.Y>/site-packages:$PYTHONPATH

where <DIR> is your install directory and <X.Y> is your python version number. You get your python version with this command:

python -c 'from sys import *;stdout.write("%s.%s\n"%version_info[:2])'

You may want to add the environment settings (“export…”) to your shell setup, e.g. $HOME/.bashrc or, if your are the system administrator, to the global shell setup.

Install in your home

In this case all files of StructuredData are installed in a directory in your home called “StructuredData”.

Advantages:

  • All StructuredData files are below $HOME/StructuredData, making it easy to uninstall StructuredData.

  • You don’t need root or administrator permissions.

Disadvantages:

  • Only you can use this installation.

  • You need the correct settings of environment variables PATH and PYTHONPATH.

For installing StructuredData this way, enter:

python setup.py install --home $HOME/StructuredData

You must set your environment like this:

export PATH=$HOME/StructuredData/bin:$PATH
export PYTHONPATH=$HOME/StructuredData/lib/python:$PYTHONPATH

You may want to add these lines to your shell setup, e.g. $HOME/.bashrc.