Installation

Why isolated environments matter

Installing a new python package into the main python environment of your system can lead to unforeseen consequences. Python packages can have dependencies on different versions of the same package, i.e. numpy. If package packageA depends on numpy==1.14.1 and you install packageB, which depends on numpy==1.9.2, then packageA may stop to work. Isolating packages into their own environments makes sure to provide the needed dependencies, while not disrupting the dependencies of other packages (in other environments).

Depending on your setup, there are different ways to create an isolated environment. In the normal Python world, one calls them virtual environment, while users of the Anaconda distribution know them as conda environment.

We recommend to install the package inside a conda environment, while the other ways are also supported.

Install via conda

Installation for Anaconda users is handled by conda. The following commands create an environment called benchmark and install mdbenchmark inside.

conda create -n benchmark
conda install -n benchmark -c conda-forge mdbenchmark

Before every usage of mdbenchmark, you need to first activate the conda environment via source activate benchmark. After doing this once, you can use mdbenchmark for the duration of your shell session.

source activate benchmark

Install via pip

Installation with pip should also be done inside a virtual environment.

python3 -m venv benchmark-env

This created a new directory called benchmark-env, if it did not exist before. Now you can activate the environment, as described above.

source benchmark-env/bin/activate

After activating the environment, you should be able to install the package via pip.

Note

The --user option leads to the installation of the package in your home directory $HOME. If you are not using the option, you may get errors due to missing write permissions.

pip install --user mdbenchmark

The method requires you to remember where you put the virtual environment and always specify the path when activating. conda makes this easier. Several python packages try to make up for this and provide some wrappers, like virtualenvwrapper.

Install via pipenv

The easiest way is to install the package is via pipenv. First install pipenv (refer to its documentation).

pip install --user pipenv

Now you can let pipenv take care of creating the virtual environment. The only downside here is, that you will always need to call mdbenchmark from the folder you installed it in.

pipenv install mdbenchmark
pipenv run mdbenchmark

You can also activate the virtual environment once and then visit different directories afterwards:

pipenv shell
cd ..
mdbenchmark