Installing the latest version of python3

1. Know which shell you are using

For our cluster, your shell may be either bash or tcsh. To check which you are using, run:

echo $SHELL

2. Check that your $HOME is shared across the cluster

Run:

echo $HOME

If the result starts with /net/, you're fine.

If the result starts with /home/ or /exports/, follow these instructions before continuing.

3. Choose either Miniconda or Linuxbrew

We recommend Miniconda because it is simpler than Linuxbrew, but both are quite easy to use.

Miniconda is a lightweight version of Anaconda that installs just python and the conda package manager. It is available for all platforms (Windows, Mac, and Linux). To install it, continue to instructions for Miniconda.

Linuxbrew can install the latest version of python, and many other programs and libraries. You can install the latest version of tmux, git, R, pandoc, samtools, or any of 5000 other packages. Linuxbrew compiles from source, and as such it can take more than ten minutes to install some programs if they depend on many other packages. To install it, continue to instructions for Linuxbrew.

You may encounter issues having both linuxbrew and miniconda on your $PATH simultaneously.

Miniconda

Installing Miniconda

(The official install instructions are here. Below is how we recommend installing miniconda3.)

Run:

curl https://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh > install-miniconda3.sh
bash install-miniconda3.sh

Type <enter> to view the terms & conditions. When you're done with them, type "q" to close them, and then "yes" <enter> to accept them.

Type <enter> to agree to the path ~/miniconda3.

Next,

• If you are using bash, type "yes" and <enter> to let have miniconda modify $PATH in your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc.

• If you are using tcsh, add the following to your .cshrc:

  setenv PATH "/net/<machine>/home/<user>/miniconda3/bin:${PATH}"

Miniconda3 makes python an alias for python3 and pip an alias for pip3. The developers of python recommend against that behavior, because many scripts expect python to refer to python2 and will break otherwise. To make python and pip refer to python2 and pip2 (like they do without miniconda3 installed), I recommend running:

rm ~/miniconda3/bin/python
rm ~/miniconda3/bin/pip

Packages

You can install python packages using conda or pip3 now. For example:

pip3 install numpy pandas

Linuxbrew

Installing Linuxbrew

Follow the installation instructions to get started.

• If you are using bash, linuxbrew can automatically set your PATH correctly by adding the proper command to your ~/.bashrc file.

• If you are using tcsh, you will need to set your PATH by adding the following to your ~/.cshrc:

  setenv PATH "/net/<machine>/home/<user>/.linuxbrew/bin:${PATH}"

Installing Python3

Now you should be able to run the following:

brew install python3

This should take a little while because brew compiles everything from scratch.

Packages

Now you can install python3 packages with pip3, which was included when you installed python3. For example:

pip3 install pandas numpy scipy statsmodels cython numba

You don't need sudo or --user since your python3 is installed under linuxbrew in your home directory.