Anaconda Python

Anaconda is a pre-packaged Python distribution for scientific users. Unlike other Python distributions, this means that most additional functionality that we need to do numerical computing, statistics, plotting and the like come already installed - which saves us a lot of time.

First, we need to download the Anaconda Bash Script (a file that will install things for us). Enter the following into the terminal:

curl -O https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/Anaconda3-2019.10-Linux-x86_64.sh

Run the Anaconda Script by entering the following into the terminal:

bash Anaconda3-2019.10-Linux-x86_64.sh

As this script runs through, review and accept the license agreement. To do this press Return until you reach the end, and type 'yes'.

After you agree to the license, you will be prompted to choose the location of the installation:

Anaconda3 will now be installed into this location:
/home/lachlan/anaconda3

  - Press ENTER to confirm the location
  - Press CTRL-C to abort the installation
  - Or specify a different location below

[/home/lachlan/anaconda3] >>>

Use the default.

The installation will continue - it does take some time, so be patient.

Once the installation is complete, you will get the following output:

...
installation finished.
Do you wish the installer to prepend the Anaconda3 install location
to PATH in your /home/lachlan/.bashrc ? [yes|no]
>>>

Type 'yes'.

Now we need to refresh our terminal settings, so type the following and press return:

source ~/.bashrc

Now proceed to verify your install.

Updating the Anaconda Install

In the future, if you want to find the most up to date Anaconda installer, go to the following website:

https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/

and find the most recent Anaconda3 installer for Linux-x86_64

Verify Installation

To verify that the correct version of Python has been installed, usually we would follow the programName --version logic from before:

python --version

which yields:

Python 3.7.4

which tells us that Python is installed. But, because most operating systems these days have some version of Python installed, this doesn't guarantee that the Anaconda version is available for us to use from the terminal.

To check, initiate Python by entering the following into a terminal and pressing Return:

python

You should now see something like:

Python 3.7.4 (default, Aug 13 2019, 20:35:49)
[GCC 7.3.0] :: Anaconda, Inc. on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

where the operating system name should be different for Mac users.

Now we see that the terminal is using the Anaconda version as we wanted. To quit the Python session we just opened, type the following at the >>>:

>>> quit()

and you will return to your terminal. This was successful if you now see a $ rather than the >>>.

Anacondas Default Environment

You will now notice there is a (base) sitting at the beginning of your terminal prompt:

bash (base) lachlan@lachlan-x1:~$

This is because by using Anaconda as our default Python install it is using it's own virtual environment, called 'base'. We may want to turn this off. To do it (permanently):

  • Create a new file .condarc in your home directory.
  • Put the following line into it: auto_activate_base: false
  • Close the file and source it

If you ever want it turned back on: conda activate base does the job in an individual terminal session. Turn it off with conda deactivate.

Python 2 vs Python 3

Python 2 and 3 are incompatible in syntax. If you had Python 2 previously installed on your machine, you might have seen Python 2.x.x above. In that case try typing

python3 --version

instead. Now you should see a message like the one above and are good to go for the course.

Virtual Environment Wrapper

I use the Virtual Environment Wrapper package to control my virtual environments. It's installed via pip:

pip install virtualenvwrapper

Now we open our .bashrc and enter the following info:

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3
export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_VIRTUALENV=/usr/bin/virtualenv
export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/.virtualenvs
export PROJECT_HOME=$HOME/Devel
source $HOME/.local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

Close and source the .bashrc and we are ready to use it.

Other Useful Python Libraries

Install via pip

  • mkdocs
  • mkdocs-material
  • pymdown-extensions
  • linearmodels