Installation procedure on Linux

We cover first Debian-like distribution, then a generic recipie for all other version is given.

Installation procedure on Debian/Ubuntu

PyFAI has been designed and originally developed on Ubuntu 10.04 and debian6. Now, the pyFAI library is included into debian7, or newer or any recent Ubuntu and Mint distribution. To install the package provided by the distribution, use:

sudo apt-get install pyfai

The issue with distribution based installation is the obsolescence of the version available.

Thanks to the work of Frédéric-Emmanuel Picca, the debian package of pyFAI provides a pretty good template which allows continuous builds.

From silx repository

You can automatically install the latest nightly built of pyFAI with:

wget http://www.silx.org/pub/debian/silx.list
wget http://www.silx.org/pub/debian/silx.pref
sudo mv silx.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
sudo mv silx.pref /etc/apt/preferences.d/
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pyfai

Nota: The nightly built packages are not signed, hence you will be prompted to install non-signed packages.

Build from sources

One can also built the current development version from sources:

sudo apt-get build-dep pyfai
wget https://github.com/silx-kit/pyFAI/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
cd pyFAI-master
./build-deb.sh --install

The first line installes all the dependences for building debian package, including debug and documentation. The build procedure last for a few minutes and you will be prompted for your password in order to install the freshly built packages. The deb-*files, available in the *package directory are backports for your local installation.

Installation procedure on other linux distibution

If your distribution does not provide you pyFAI packages, using the PIP way is advised, via wheels packages. First install pip and wheel and activate a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv pyfai
source pyfai/bin/activate
pip install setuptools wheel pip
pip install pyFAI

Or you can install pyFAI from the sources:

python3 -m venv pyfai
source pyfai/bin/activate
pip install setuptools wheel pip
wget https://github.com/silx-kit/pyFAI/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
cd pyFAI-master
pip install -r requirements.txt
python setup.py build
python run_tests.py
pip install . --upgrade

Nota: The usage of “python setup.py install” is now deprecated. It causes much more trouble as there is no installed file tracking, hence no way to de-install properly the package. One should never use sudo pip as it is likely to interfer with the software installed with the system.