How to install your next Python Jupyter environment from scratch ?

Introduction

Have you ever need to install from scratch a new python and Jupyter environment ?

You may have been wondering where to start, and how to avoid breaking your Python system installation.

So here I have for you a step-by-step installation to get a clean python Jupyter notebook environment.

Step 1: install pyenv

pyenv is my favorite python environment manager.

It enables to safely install multiple versions of python in your OS.

See the documentation

In Ubuntu, I did the following (prerequisites: curl and git):

curl https://pyenv.run | bash

Then, following pyenv documentation, I configured my .bashrc file:

echo 'export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'command -v pyenv >/dev/null || export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'eval "$(pyenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc

and restarted my shell:

exec "$SHELL"

I installed python build dependencies:

sudo apt update; sudo apt install build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev \
libbz2-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev curl \
libncursesw5-dev xz-utils tk-dev libxml2-dev libxmlsec1-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev

Step 2: install python and create your virtual environment

At this stage, I was ready to install new python versions, such as the version 3.11:

pyenv install 3.10

Then you create a virtual environment:

pyenv virtualenv 3.10.13 nbdev310

Once the virtual env is ready, you can activate it:

pyenv activate nbdev310

Step 3: install Jupyter and other tools

You can install Jupyter, and the nbdev library with pip:

pip install jupyter nbdev

I also recommend to install quarto:

nbdev_install_quarto

Your first nbdev project

Initiate your github repository

You create a new github repository. Once this is done, copy its HTTPS clone url.

Clone your repository in your development environment:

git clone YOUR_REPOSITORY_HTTPS_URL

Configure the nbdev environment

Now you can set-up the initial nbdev environment with:

nbdev_new
nbdev_install_hooks
git add .
git commit -m 'Creation'
git push

PyPi Configuration

To be able to publish your packages to PyPi, register at pypi, and then create a file called ~/.pypirc with your login details. It should have these lines:

[pypi]
username = your_pypi_username
password = your_pypi_password

Congratulations you have a working nbdev environment in a completely isolated environment with chroot and python virtual environment ! You can now enjoy the power of Jupyter notebooks and nbdev library.

Next Steps

You can now continue with the nbdev walkthough.

You can explore the nbdev features: github pages workflow integration, pypi integration, etc.

Enjoy coding with nbdev !