Installation

PyQ can be installed using the standard Python package management tool pip.

To install the latest version, run the following command

$ pip install pyq

Extras

For the best experience with PyQ, you should also install some third-party packages such as numpy and IPython. The extra packages recommended by the PyQ developers can be installed using the pip install pyq[all] command.

Requirements

Operating system

Linux, macOS 10.11+

Solaris is supported, but has not been tested recently.

Windows is supported as an experiment

kdb+

V2.8+

Python

2.7, or 3.5+

Download

Compiler

gcc or clang

Installing from the package repository

Use the following pip command to install the latest version of PyQ into your environment.

$ pip install pyq

To install another version, specify which version you would like to install:

$ pip install pyq==4.1.2

Installing from source code

Get the source code using one of the following:
- Clone the Github repository
```
$ git clone https://github.com/kxsystems/pyq.git
```
- Download the source archive as a tar file or a zip file and extract it.
Install the sources into your environment using pip:
```
$ pip install path-to-the-source
```

Installing into a virtual environment

PyQ was designed to work inside virtual environments. You can set up your system to use different versions of Python and/or kdb+ by using separate virtual environments.

To create a virtual environment, you need to install the virtualenv package:

$ [sudo] pip install virtualenv

Create a new virtualenv and activate it:

$ virtualenv path/to/virtualenv
$ source path/to/virtualenv/bin/activate

Download kdb+ and save into your ~/Downloads folder. Extract it into virtualenv:

$ unzip ${HOME}/Downloads/macosx.zip -d ${VIRTUAL_ENV}

If you have a license for kdb+, create a directory for it first:

$ mkdir -p ${VIRTUAL_ENV}/q && unzip path/to/m64.zip -d ${VIRTUAL_ENV}/q

Copy your kdb+ license file to ${VIRTUAL_ENV}/q or set the QLIC environment variable to the directory containing the license file and add it to the virtualenv's activate file:

$ echo "export QLIC=path/to/qlic" >> ${VIRTUAL_ENV}/bin/activate
$ source ${VIRTUAL_ENV}/bin/activate

Install PyQ:

$ pip install pyq

Installing 32-bit PyQ with 32-bit kdb+ on a 64-bit CentOS 7

Python 2.7

This guide is for installing Python 3.6.

To use Python 2.7, replace 3.6.0 with 2.7.13 where necessary.

Install the development tools and libraries to build 32-bit Python


$ sudo yum install gcc gcc-c++ rpm-build subversion git zip unzip bzip2 \
  libgcc.i686 glibc-devel.i686 glibc.i686 zlib-devel.i686 \
  readline-devel.i686 gdbm-devel.i686 openssl-devel.i686 ncurses-devel.i686 \
  tcl-devel.i686 libdb-devel.i686 bzip2-devel.i686 sqlite-devel.i686 \
  tk-devel.i686 libpcap-devel.i686 xz-devel.i686 libffi-devel.i686

Download, compile and install 32-bit Python 3.6.0 into /opt/python3.6.i686


$ mkdir -p ${HOME}/Archive ${HOME}/Build
$ sudo mkdir -p /opt/python3.6.i686
$ curl -Ls http://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.6.0/Python-3.6.0.tgz \
  -o ${HOME}/Archive/Python-3.6.0.tgz
$ tar xzvf ${HOME}/Archive/Python-3.6.0.tgz -C ${HOME}/Build
$ cd ${HOME}/Build/Python-3.6.0
$ export CFLAGS=-m32 LDFLAGS=-m32
$ ./configure --prefix=/opt/python3.6.i686 --enable-shared
$ LD_RUN_PATH=/opt/python3.6.i686/lib make
$ sudo make install
$ unset CFLAGS LDFLAGS

Let’s confirm we have 32-bit Python on our 64-bit system


$ uname -mip
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64
$ /opt/python3.6.i686/bin/python3.6 \
  -c "import platform; print(platform.processor(), platform.architecture())"
x86_64 ('32bit', 'ELF')

Yes, exactly what we wanted.

We are going to use virtual environments, so download, extract, and install virtualenv


$ curl -Ls https://pypi.org/packages/source/v/virtualenv/virtualenv-15.1.0.tar.gz \
  -o ${HOME}/Archive/virtualenv-15.1.0.tar.gz
$ tar xzf ${HOME}/Archive/virtualenv-15.1.0.tar.gz -C ${HOME}/Build

Create a 32-bit Python virtual environment; first, create a virtual environment:


$ /opt/python3.6.i686/bin/python3.6 ${HOME}/Build/virtualenv-15.1.0/virtualenv.py \
  ${HOME}/Work/pyq3

Enter the new virtual environment, confirm you have 32-bit Python there:


(pyq3) $ source ${HOME}/Work/pyq3/bin/activate
(pyq3) $ python -c "import struct; print(struct.calcsize('P') * 8)"
32

Download the 32-bit Linux x86 version of kdb+ from kx.com and save it as ${HOME}/Work/linux-x86.zip.

Extract and install kdb+


(pyq3) $ unzip ${HOME}/Work/linux-x86.zip -d ${VIRTUAL_ENV}

Install PyQ 3.8.2 or newer
```
(pyq3) $ pip install pyq>=3.8.2
```
Start PyQ
```
(pyq3) $ pyq
```

>>> import platform
>>> platform.processor()
'x86_64'
>>> platform.architecture()
('32bit', 'ELF')
>>> from pyq import q
>>> q.til(10)
k('0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9')

Installing on Ubuntu 16.04

Since Python provided by Ubuntu is statically linked, shared libraries need to be installed before PyQ can be installed.

Python 2

Install shared libraries:

$ sudo apt-get install libpython-dev libpython-stdlib python-pip python-virtualenv

Create and activate virtual environment:

$ python -m virtualenv -p $(which python2) py2
$ source py2/bin/activate

Install PyQ:

(py2) $ pip install pyq

Python 3

Install shared libraries:

$ sudo apt-get install libpython3-dev libpython3-stdlib python3-pip python3-virtualenv

Create and activate virtual environment:

$ python3 -m virtualenv -p $(which python3) py3
$ source py3/bin/activate

Install PyQ:

(py3) $ pip3 install pyq

Installing with 32-bit kdb+ on macOS

To use PyQ with the free 32-bit kdb+ on macOS, you need a 32-bit version of Python.

Python installed on macOS

MacOS Sierra and High Sierra ship with a universal version of Python 2.7.10.

System Python 2

Install the virtualenv module:

$ pip install virtualenv

If your system, does not have pip installed, follow pip installation guide.

Create and activate a virtual environment:

$ virtualenv ${HOME}/pyq2
$ source ${HOME}/pyq2/bin/activate

Download kdb+ and save the downloaded file as ${HOME}/Downloads/macosx.zip.

Install kdb+ and PyQ:

(pyq2) $ unzip ${HOME}/Downloads/macosx.zip -d ${VIRTUAL_ENV}
(pyq2) $ pip install pyq

PyQ is ready and can be launched:

(pyq2) $ pyq

Brewing Universal Python

To use the latest version of Python 2.7 or Python 3, install it using the package manager Homebrew.

Install Homebrew.

Install universal Python 2.7 and Python 3.6:


$ brew install --universal sashkab/python/python27 sashkab/python/python36

Install the virtualenv package.
```
$ /usr/local/opt/pythonXY/bin/pythonX -mpip install -U virtualenv
```
X is the major version of the Python; Y the minor, i.e. 2.7 or 3.6.

Create a new virtual environment and activate it:


$ /usr/local/opt/pythonXY/bin/pythonX -mvirtualenv -p /usr/local/opt/pythonXY/bin/pythonX ${HOME}/pyq
$ source ${HOME}/pyq/bin/activate

Download kdb+ by following this link and save the downloaded file as ${HOME}/Downloads/macosx.zip.

Install kdb+ and PyQ:


(pyq) $ unzip ${HOME}/Downloads/macosx.zip -d ${VIRTUAL_ENV}
(pyq) $ pip install pyq

PyQ is ready and can be launched:

(pyq2) $ pyq

Installing on Windows

PyQ 4.1.0 introduced experimental support for Windows.

Requirements are:

Installation should be started using the Windows Command Prompt.
Visual Studio 9 for Python, if using Python 2.7.x.
Microsoft Build Tools for Visual Studio 2017, if using Python 3.6.x
Ensure that kdb+ is installed under C:\q, or that the QHOME environment variable is set to the location of the kdb+ executable.

Install PyQ:

pip install -U pyq

You can start PyQ by running

c:\q\w32\q.exe python.q

Known limitation

You will have to press ^Z and then Enter key in order to get into the Python REPL.

You can run tests too: first install the required packages:

pip install pytest pytest-pyq

Then run:

set QBIN=c:\q\w32\q.exe
%QBIN% python.q -mpytest --pyargs pyq < nul

You can follow the latest updates on Windows support on issue gh#1.

Installing the Jupyter kernel

Since we have not ported the pyq executable to the Windows platform yet, setting up a working PyQ environment on Windows requires several manual steps.

First, you are strongly recommended to use a dedicated Python virtual environment and install q in %VIRTUAL_ENV%. Assuming that you have downloaded windows.zip from kx.com into your Downloads folder, enter the following commands:

python -mvenv py36
py36\Scripts\activate.bat
set QHOME=%VIRTUAL_ENV%\q
"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" x -y -o%VIRTUAL_ENV% %HOMEPATH%\Downloads\windows.zip
del %QHOME%\q.q
set PYTHONPATH=%VIRTUAL_ENV%\lib\site-packages
set QBIN=%QHOME%\w32\q.exe

Now you should be able to install jupyter, pyq and pyq-kernel in one command:

pip install jupyter pyq pyq-kernel

Finally, to install PyQ kernel specs, run

%QBIN% python.q -mpyq.kernel install

If everything is successful, you should see pyq_3 listed in the kernelspec list:

>jupyter kernelspec list
Available kernels:
  pyq_3      C:\Users\a\AppData\Roaming\jupyter\kernels\pyq_3
  python3    c:\users\a\py36\share\jupyter\kernels\python3

Now, start the notebook server

jupyter-notebook

and select PyQ 3 from the New menu.

YouTube: What can be done in a PyQ notebook