--- layout: default navsection: sdk navmenu: Python title: "Installation" ... {% comment %} Copyright (C) The Arvados Authors. All rights reserved. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-3.0 {% endcomment %} The Python SDK provides access from Python to the Arvados API and Keep, along with a number of command line tools for using and administering Arvados and Keep. h2. Installation If you are logged in to an Arvados VM, the Python SDK should be installed. To use the Python SDK elsewhere, you can install from PyPI or a distribution package. The Python SDK supports Python 2.7 and 3.4+ h2. Option 1: Install from a distribution package This installation method is recommended to make the CLI tools available system-wide. It can coexist with the installation method described in option 2, below. First, configure the "Arvados package repositories":../../install/packages.html {% assign arvados_component = 'python-arvados-python-client' %} {% include 'install_packages' %} h2. Option 2: Install with pip This installation method is recommended to use the SDK in your own Python programs. If installed into a @virtualenv@, it can coexist with the system-wide installation method from a distribution package. Run @pip install arvados-python-client@ in an appropriate installation environment, such as a @virtualenv@. Note: The SDK uses @pycurl@ which depends on the @libcurl@ C library. To build the module you may have to first install additional packages. On Debian 9 this is:
$ apt-get install git build-essential python-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libssl1.0-dev
For Python 3 this is
$ apt-get install git build-essential python3-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libssl1.0-dev
If your version of @pip@ is 1.4 or newer, the @pip install@ command might give an error: "Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement arvados-python-client". If this happens, try @pip install --pre arvados-python-client@. h2. Test installation If the SDK is installed and your @ARVADOS_API_HOST@ and @ARVADOS_API_TOKEN@ environment variables are set up correctly (see "api-tokens":{{site.baseurl}}/user/reference/api-tokens.html for details), @import arvados@ should produce no errors. If you installed with pip (option 1, above):
~$ python
Python 2.7.4 (default, Sep 26 2013, 03:20:26)
[GCC 4.7.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import arvados
>>> arvados.api('v1')
<apiclient.discovery.Resource object at 0x233bb50>
If you installed from a distribution package (option 2): the package includes a virtualenv, which means the correct Python environment needs to be loaded before the Arvados SDK can be imported. This can be done by activating the virtualenv first:
~$ source /usr/share/python2.7/dist/python-arvados-python-client/bin/activate
(python-arvados-python-client) ~$ python
Python 2.7.4 (default, Sep 26 2013, 03:20:26)
[GCC 4.7.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import arvados
>>> arvados.api('v1')
<apiclient.discovery.Resource object at 0x233bb50>
Or alternatively, by using the Python executable from the virtualenv directly:
~$ /usr/share/python2.7/dist/python-arvados-python-client/bin/python
Python 2.7.4 (default, Sep 26 2013, 03:20:26)
[GCC 4.7.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import arvados
>>> arvados.api('v1')
<apiclient.discovery.Resource object at 0x233bb50>
h2. Usage Check out the "examples":example.html and "cookbook":cookbook.html h3. Notes The general form of an API call is:
arvados.api(api_version).plural_resource_type().api_method(parameter=value, ...).execute()
Many API methods accept a parameter whose name is the same as the resource type. For example, @links.create@ accepts a parameter called @link@. This parameter should be given as @body@.
arvados.api('v1').links().create(
    uuid=test_link['uuid'],
    body={'properties':{'foo':'bar'}}).execute()
One way to make API calls slightly less verbose is:
arv = arvados.api('v1')
j = arv.jobs().list().execute()
The SDK retrieves the list of API methods from the server at run time. Therefore, the set of available methods is determined by the server version rather than the SDK version.