rdplot 1.1.110

Snap

You can install RDPlot directly via snap for various Linux distributions. It was tested with Ubuntu 16.04 and Arch Linux. Be aware of the fact that you cannot access any directory in your system when rdplot is installed via snap. This is due to the confinement limitations of snaps. You will have access to /home and /media. Therefore, you should make sure, that the data you want to plot is accessible under these directories. If you feel comfortable with that:

sudo snap install rdplot
sudo snap connect rdplot:removable-media

Note, that connecting removable-media is not necessary, if you do not wish to acess files under /media.

Building from Source

The following was tested with Ubuntu 16.04. It should be similar for other distributions.

First of all there is a conflict between the python3-matplotlib package for Ubuntu and matplotlib installed from pip.

RDPlot will only work with matplotlib directly installed from pip and python3-matplotlib not installed via the system packet manager (e.g. apt). If you need system packages that conflict with the packages required for RDPlot, you can use a python virtual environment (see below). The general recommendation for installing python packages is to use pip.

Make sure that you are using python 3 and pip is up to date:

python3 -V
pip3 -V
sudo pip3 install --upgrade pip

Note: python2 has been retired in 2020. python3 might also be called simply python on your system.

If missing, install python3:

sudo apt-get install python3

If missing, install pip3:

sudo sh -c "curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3"

Sadly but true, we need a few dependencies. You need to install them with either your system packet manager, or pip:

sudo apt-get install python3-jsonpickle python3-setuptools python3-git # <- apt OR
sudo pip3 install gitpython                                            # <- pip

Now we can download the source and build our rdplot package:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/IENT/RDPlot && cd RDPlot # alternativly download and unpack current stable from  https://github.com/IENT/RDPlot/releases
python3 setup.py sdist

Now you can install rdplot, either as user or system wide. Install it system wide:

sudo pip3 install --no-binary rdplot dist/rdplot-*.tar.gz

As user. This will install the binary to ~/.local/bin/rdplot. Make sure it is in your PATH. The desktop launcher also will work only if this is the case:

pip3 install --user --no-binary rdplot  dist/rdplot-*.tar.gz

If you already have the tool installed run:

sudo pip3 install --no-binary rdplot --upgrade dist/rdplot-*.tar.gz

Now you should be able to run rdplot from the command line and have a launcher in your favourite desktop enviroment.

If you do not want to build the distribution but a simple install run:

sudo python setup.py install

Virtual Environment

If you need system packages that conflict with the packages required for RDPlot, you can use a python virtual environment (see below).

When you are inside a virtual environment, python ignores all system packages and instead uses a dedicated environment, allowing you to install packages with pip that would otherwise conflict with system packages and/or different versions. The pitfall is that you need to activate the environment each time you want to use the program.

You can find more info on virtual environments at https://packaging.python.org/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtual-environments/.

venv is included in python since version 3.3. If your python version is older consider upgrading, or install venv using:

sudo pip install virtualenv

Download RDPlot. Make sure you do this at a place where it can stay:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/IENT/RDPlot
cd RDPlot

Create a virtualenv named “env” inside the RDPlot directory:

python3 -m venv env

Activate the venv and install dependencies:

source env/bin/activate
pip3 install --upgrade pip gitpython

Build and install RDPlot:

python3 setup.py sdist
pip3 install --no-binary rdplot --upgrade dist/rdplot-*.tar.gz

Leave the environment:

deactivate

Remember to activate the environment every time you want to run RDPlot:

cd RDPlot
source env/bin/activate
rdplot
deactivate

To uninstall, simply delete the RDPlot directory.