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Installing Dac-Man

Dac-Man is distributed as a Python package compatible with common installation tools and methods.

Requirements

Dac-Man is written in Python 3, and is compatible with version 3.6 or greater.

It is known to work with the following operating systems:

  • GNU/Linux
  • macOS
  • Unix-like OSs

Installing Dac-Man using Conda

The recommended way to install and run Dac-Man is through a Conda environment.

Installing the conda package manager

The conda package manager is used to create and manage Conda environments.

conda is available for all major operating systems (GNU/Linux, macOS, Windows). Refer to the Conda install guide for detailed information on how to install conda for your system.

Installing Dac-Man in a new Conda environment

After installing conda, clone the Dac-Man source code repository using Git:

git clone https://github.com/deduce-dev/dac-man

Then, navigate to the root of the cloned repository and run this command to automatically create a Conda environment and install Dac-Man, together with its core dependencies, at the same time:

cd dac-man
conda env create --file ./environment.yml

Important

This will install only the dependencies needed for Dac-Man's core functionality. Additional dependencies are needed for Dac-Man's plug-in framework, as described later here.

Note

By default, the name of the Conda environment is set in environment.yml as dacman-env. If for any reason a different name for the environment is needed, modify the value for name in environment.yml, and then adapt the steps described throughout this documentation specifying the new name to the --name option of conda commands.

Installing in an existing Conda environment

If using an existing Conda environment, these steps help illustrate how to install Dac-Man.

Assuming our existing environment has the name my-conda-env, we navigate to the root of Dac-Man's repository, then run the following command to install Dac-Man as well as its core dependencies:

conda env update --name my-conda-env --file ./environment.yml

Tip

In this case, only Dac-man's core dependencies will be installed after these steps. Instructions on how to install dependencies for enabling Dac-Man's included plug-ins can be found on this page, depending on whether Pip (here) or Conda (here) was used to install Dac-Man.

Installing Dac-Man in a new Python virtual environment using Pip

Alternatively, we can use Pip to install Dac-man in a virtual environment (virtualenv).

Installing Dac-Man in a new virtual environment

Using the built-in venv Python module, start by setting up a virtual environment with Python 3.6 or later installed. In this example, our virtual environment is named "dacman-env". Next, activate the environment. At this point, your prompt should indicate that you are in the activated environment (note the activated environment indicated by (dacman-env)), and check the Python version installed, using the command python --version

$ python3 -m venv dacman-env
$ activate dacman-env
$ (dacman-env) python --version
Python 3.7.7

Next, clone the Dac-Man source code repository using Git:

git clone https://github.com/deduce-dev/dac-man

Then, navigate to the root of the cloned repository and run this command to install the core dependencies:

cd dac-man
pip install .

Installing Dac-Man in an existing environment

Instead of creating an environment for Dac-Man from scratch, it is possible to install Dac-Man in an existing environment.

Installing in an existing Conda environment

These steps illustrate how to install Dac-Man in an existing Conda environment named e.g. my-conda-env.

From the root of Dac-Man's repository, run the following command to install Dac-Man as well as its core dependencies:

conda env update --name my-conda-env --file ./environment.yml

Tip

Also in this case, only Dac-man's core dependencies will be installed after these steps. Instructions on how to install dependencies for enabling Dac-Man's included plug-ins can be found on this page, depending on whether Pip (here) or Conda (here) was used to install Dac-Man.

Installing in an existing Python virtual environment (virtualenv)

The steps to install in an existing environment are similar to the instructions described in Installing Dac-Man in a new virtual environment.

Updating Dac-Man

To update Dac-Man from an existing version, follow the steps described in Installing Dac-Man in an existing environment. These steps will upgrade the Dac-Man package itself, as well as its dependencies, in the environment where Dac-Man was installed.

Tip

If issues appear after updating, consider installing Dac-Man in a fresh environment instead. For more information about addressing common issues, refer to the Troubleshooting section.