Getting started

Installing

Linux

PyTango is available on linux as an official debian/ubuntu package:

$ sudo apt-get install python-pytango

RPM packages are also available for RHEL & CentOS:

PyPi

You can also install the latest version from PyPi.

First, make sure you have the following packages already installed (all of them are available from the major official distribution repositories):

Then install PyTango either from pip:

$ pip install PyTango

or easy_install:

$ easy_install -U PyTango

Windows

First, make sure Python and numpy are installed.

PyTango team provides a limited set of binary PyTango distributables for Windows XP/Vista/7/8. The complete list of binaries can be downloaded from PyPI.

Select the proper windows package, download it and finally execute the installion wizard.

Compiling

Linux

Since PyTango 7 the build system used to compile PyTango is the standard python distutils.

Besides the binaries for the three dependencies mentioned above, you also need the development files for the respective libraries.

You can get the latest .tar.gz from PyPI or directly the latest SVN checkout:

$ svn co http://svn.code.sf.net/p/tango-cs/code/bindings/PyTango/trunk PyTango
$ cd PyTango
$ python setup.py build
$ sudo python setup.py install

This will install PyTango in the system python installation directory and, since version 8.0.0, it will also install ITango as an IPython extension.

If whish to install in a different directory, replace the last line with:

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$ # private installation to your user (usually ~/.local/lib/python<X>.<Y>/site-packages
$ python setup.py install --user

$ # or specific installation directory
$ python setup.py install --prefix=/home/homer/local

Windows

On windows, PyTango must be built using MS VC++. Since it is rarely needed and the instructions are so complicated, I have choosen to place the how-to in a separate text file. You can find it in the source package under doc/windows_notes.txt.

Testing

If you have IPython installed, the best way to test your PyTango installation is by starting the new PyTango CLI called ITango by typing on the command line:

$ itango

then, in ITango type:

ITango [1]: PyTango.Release.version
Result [1]: '8.0.2'

(if you are wondering, ITango automaticaly does import PyTango for you!)

If you don’t have IPython installed, to test the installation start a python console and type:

>>> import PyTango
>>> PyTango.Release.version
'8.0.2'

Next steps: Check out the Quick tour.