How to Install Python Packages into CoCalc

About Python Packages in CoCalc

You may need to install a Python package in a CoCalc project.

CoCalc already includes hundreds of packages for several Python development environments.

If a package may have general use but is not already installed in CoCalc, you can open a support request to install it. Uncomplicated install requests are typically handled within 1 business day for paying customers. Install will happen faster if you include as much as possible of the following information:

• Python 2 or Python 3 language version
• link to package website
• special requirements and dependencies to build & install
• include a complete example that we can easily use to verify that we properly installed the software.

You can install additional packages yourself, but only at user-permission level. CoCalc accounts do not have superuser (root) privileges. Software must be installed into user-writeable parts of the filesystem.

How to install Python packages as a CoCalc user

Note regarding Python 2 vs. Python 3:

• Python 2: use pip2 or python2 -- pip and python should default to these variants.
• Python 3: use pip3 or python3 below.

pip

If your package can be installed with pip, then use pip install --user [package-name].

Your project must have the "Internet access" upgrade in order to download software from the pip repository to your project. The Python pip command will not work unless you upgrade your project to have internet access.

setup.py

If your package is in a folder inside your project (e.g., you uploaded it) with a setup.py folder, you can do either python setup.py install --user or pip install --user --upgrade ./

If pip requires that any external dependencies be downloaded, then your project must have internet access.

virtualenv

You can avoid the need for --user flags if you work inside a Python virtual environment. See Virtualenv for more information.