Setting up a Python development environment (original) (raw)

This tutorial shows how to prepare your local machine forPythondevelopment, including developing Python apps that run on Google Cloud.

If you already have a development environment set up, seePython and Google Cloudto get an overview of how to run Python apps on Google Cloud.

Objectives

Installing Python

Python's installation instructions vary by operating system. Follow the guide for the operating system you're running in your development environment, macOS, Windows, or Linux.

macOS

macOS includes a version of Python by default and uses it for its own purposes. To avoid interfering with macOS, we recommend creating a separate development environment and installing asupported version of Pythonfor Google Cloud. To install Python, usehomebrew.

  1. To use homebrew to install Python packages, you need a compiler, which you can get by installingXcode's command-line tools.
xcode-select --install
  1. Install homebrew by following the instructions on thehomebrew homepage, and then use homebrew to install Python as follows:
brew install pyenv  
pyenv install PYTHON_VERSION

Python version number should be in the format of x.y. For example: 

pyenv install 3.12
  1. After the installations are complete, verify that Python 3 is available as python and python3, and that pip is also installed.
    To verify that Python is available, run the following command:
python3 --version

The output shows the version. You can learn about Python homebrew on theHomebrew Python Formulaepage, and then check your version.
To verify that pip3 is available, run the following command: 

pip3 --version

If installed, the output shows the pip3 version. For more about the latest version of pip3, see thepip Release Notes.
If the preceding command does not show the pip3 version, make sure thatpip3 is installed correctly. If pip3 is installed but not working, upgrade to the latest version using the following command: 

python -m pip install --upgrade pip

Homebrew installs the latest versions of Python available on your platform. The version numbers in the outputs might be different fromthe latest official releases of Python.

Windows

  1. To install Python in a Windows environment, download the installer for the version of Python you need from thePython website. For more information, see the supported versions of Pythonfor Google Cloud.
  2. To access your version of Python, usePython launcher for Windows.
    To start the version of Python you installed, run the following command:
py

To start the version of Python 3 you installed, run the following command: 

py -3

To verify the version of pip that is available, run the following command: 

py -m pip --version

The output shows the version fromC:\users\[USERNAME]\appdata\local\programs\python\python38-32\lib\site-packages.
You can learn about the latest version ofpip in the pip Release Notes.

Linux

Most Linux distributions include recent versions of Python.

  1. To install Python in a Linux environment, install the appropriate packages for your distribution. For Debian and Ubuntu, these packages arepython3,python3-dev,python3-venv, andpython3-pip,
    Install these packages using the following commands:
sudo apt update  
sudo apt install python3 python3-dev python3-venv python3-pip
  1. After the installations are complete, verify that you have pip installed:
pip3 --version

You can learn about the latest version ofpip in the pip Release Notes.

Using venv to isolate dependencies

venvis a tool that creates isolated Python environments. These isolated environments can have separate versions of Python packages, which lets you isolate one project's dependencies from the dependencies of other projects. We recommend that you always use a per-project virtual environment when developing locally with Python.

  1. Use the venv command to create a virtual copy of the entire Python installation. This tutorial creates a virtual copy in a folder named env, but you can specify any name for the folder.

macOS

cd your-project  
python -m venv env

Windows

cd your-project  
py -m venv env

Linux

cd your-project  
python3 -m venv env
  1. Set your shell to use the venv paths for Python by activating the virtual environment:

macOS

source env/bin/activate

Windows

.\env\Scripts\activate

Linux

source env/bin/activate
  1. Now you can install packages without affecting other projects or your global Python installation:
pip install google-cloud-storage

If you want to stop using the virtual environment and go back to your global Python, you can deactivate it: 

deactivate

You can read more about venv in thevenv docs.

Installing an editor

To develop Python apps, you need an editor. Here are a few of the more popular editors (in no particular order):

Installing the Cloud Client Libraries for Python

The Cloud Client Libraries for Python is how Python developers integrate with Google Cloud services like Datastore and Cloud Storage. To install the package for an individual API like Cloud Storage, use a command similar to the following:

pip install --upgrade google-cloud-storage

Installing the gcloud CLI

The gcloud CLIis a set of command-line tools for Google Cloud. It contains gcloud andbq, which you can use to access Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, BigQuery, and other products and services from the command line. You can run these tools interactively or in your automated scripts.

Set up authentication

To use the client library, you must first set up authentication.

If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

gcloud auth application-default login

You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

For more information, seeAuthenticate for using client libraries.

What's next