Quickstart / Installation¶
The BigchainDB Python Driver depends on:
libffi/ffi.h
- Python 3.5+
- A recent Python 3 version of
pip
- A recent Python 3 version of
setuptools
If you’re missing one of those, then see below. Otherwise, you can install the BigchainDB Python Driver (bigchaindb_driver
) using:
pip install bigchaindb_driver
Next: determine the BigchainDB Root URL of the BigchainDB node or cluster you want to connect to.
How to Install the Dependencies¶
Dependency 1: ffi.h¶
BigchainDB (server and driver) depends on cryptoconditions,
which depends on PyNaCl (Networking and Cryptography library),
which depends on ffi.h
.
Hence, depending on your setup, you may need to install the
development files for libffi
.
On Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04, this works:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libffi-dev
On Fedora 23 and 24, this works:
sudo dnf update
sudo dnf install libffi-devel
For other operating systems, just do some web searches for “ffi.h” with the name of your OS.
Dependency 2: Python 3.5+¶
The BigchainDB Python Driver uses Python 3.5+. You can check your version of Python using:
python --version
An easy way to install a specific version of Python, and to switch between versions of Python, is to use virtualenv. Another option is conda.
Dependency 3: pip¶
You also need to get a recent, Python 3 version of pip
, the Python package manager.
If you’re using virtualenv or conda, then each virtual environment should include an appropriate version of pip
.
You can check your version of pip
using:
pip --version
pip
was at version 9.0.0 as of November 2016.
If you need to upgrade your version of pip
,
then see the pip documentation
or our page about that in the BigchainDB Server docs.
Dependency 4: setuptools¶
Once you have a recent Python 3 version of pip
, you should be able to upgrade setuptools
using:
pip install --upgrade setuptools
Installing the Driver¶
Now you can install the BigchainDB Python Driver (bigchaindb_driver
) using:
pip install bigchaindb_driver
Next: determine the BigchainDB Root URL of the BigchainDB node or cluster you want to connect to.
Advanced Installation Options¶
See the Advanced Installation Options page.