Eric 6 User's Guide/Getting Started/Installation

Linux

Install from PyPI or Use a Packaging System?

Eric can be installed via the Python Packages Index (PyPI) using pip (see below). That is the recommended and simplest way to get Eric working on your computer.

Your Linux distributions may have an installation package for Eric. Whether to use it instead of pip may come down to a question of trade-offs. Packaging systems like anaconda, apt, yum and pacman are great at quick, reliable installation of software, avoiding “dependency hell.” On the other hand, the package system almost surely will not install the most recent Eric release and may be a major version behind. Also, recognize that you are adopting the installation choices made by the distribution packager.

The details are distribution-specific and the choice also depends on your comfort and experience level (although installing with pip could hardly be simpler). Regardless, it is inadvisable to mix-and-match. For example, using a packaging system to install PyQt5 and QScintilla and then trying to install Eric using its install.py script may not work. Eric requires particular version numbers of those products – if the installed ones don’t match, Eric may abort its installation.

Similarly, if you get a partial copy of Qt5 from somewhere other than The Qt Company, you may find that certain features in Eric mysteriously don’t work.

Prerequisites

Eric requires Qt5, PyQt5 and QScintilla be installed first. PyQt5 and QScintilla will be installed automatically if you use pip.

Download the online installer for Qt5 from The Qt Company. You should end up with a file called something like:

qt-unified-linux-x64-3.x.x.run

To use it, make it executable first. In a terminal:

chmod u+x qt-unified-linux-x64-3.2.3.run

then run it:

./qt-unified-linux-x64-3.2.3.run

Eric has a number of hooks into Qt, so it’s better to select broadly from the installation choices in the Qt version you’re installing. You may be able to deselect sections that definitely don’t apply to you (perhaps Wayland?).

Installation in a Virtual Environment Using pip

Installing Eric into a Python virtual environment will keep Eric and its associated packages isolated from other Python applications/packages/projects. This helps to minimize conflicts between them.

You may need to install the Python module venv first.

Then, in a terminal:

confirm that you have pip installed:

pip --version

If pip is not installed, the Python documentation has comprehensive advice.

make a folder to contain Eric:

mkdir <path to virtual env directory>

create a Python virtual environment in the folder:

python3 -m venv <path to virtual env directory>

activate it:

source <path to virtual env directory>/bin/activate

(for bash. Other shells have their own scripts in Eric/bin.)

confirm that pip, setuptools and wheel are up to date:

python -m pip install –upgrade pip setuptools wheel

install Eric:

pip install eric-ide

Using pip for installation has the added advantage of installing the prerequisites from PyQt5 and QScintilla as well.

Alternative Installation Method

You can download the .zip archive from SourceForge via the link on Eric's [https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/eric-download.html Installation\ page. Unpack it into an appropriate folder. There will be an install.py script in its /scripts folder. Install Qt, PyQt5 and QScintilla as outlined above.

Next, install PyQt5 using pip:

pip install PyQt5

Then install QScintilla:

pip install QScintilla

(It is also possible to build these packages from source – see the Riverbank site for details.)

Finally create and activate the virtual environment for Eric, as above, then run:

python <path to virtual env directory>\scripts\install.py

Upgrading

Using pip to upgrade Eric is as simple as:

pip install --upgrade eric-ide

Windows

Install and verify that Python is working, then enter the following at a Command Prompt (elevation may be required):

pip install eric-ide