2. Install in Virtual Environments

If you do not want the installation to occupy your main python’s site-packages (either you are testing or the dependencies may clutter your existing installed packages), install the package in an isolated virtual environment. Two common virtual environments are virtualenv and conda.

2.1. Install in virtualenv Environment

1. Install virtualenv:

   python -m pip install virtualenv
   

2. Create a virtual environment and give it a name, such as imate_env

   python -m virtualenv imate_env
   

3. Activate python in the new environment

   source imate_env/bin/activate
   

4. Install imate package with any of the above methods. For instance:

   python -m pip install imate
   

   Then, use the package in this environment.

5. To exit from the environment

   deactivate
   

2.2. Install in conda Environment

In the followings, it is assumed anaconda (or miniconda) is installed.

1. Initialize conda

   conda init
   

   You may need to close and reopen your terminal after the above command. Alternatively, instead of the above, you can do

   sudo sh $(conda info --root)/etc/profile.d/conda.sh
   

2. Create a virtual environment and give it a name, such as imate_env

   conda create --name imate_env -y
   

   The command conda info --envs shows the list of all environments. The current environment is marked by an asterisk in the list, which should be the default environment at this stage. In the next step, we will change the current environment to the one we created.

3. Activate the new environment

   source activate imate_env
   

4. Install imate with any of the above methods. For instance:

   conda install -c s-ameli imate
   

   Then, use the package in this environment.

5. To exit from the environment

   conda deactivate