Installation Instructions

If you encounter any bugs during installation, please email gpkit at mit.edu.

Mac OS X

1. Install Python and build dependencies

  • Install the Python 2.7 version of Anaconda. - Check that Anaconda is installed: in a Terminal window, run python and check that the version string it prints while starting includes “Anaconda”.

    • If it does not, check that the Anaconda location in .profile in your home directory (you can run vim ~/.profile to read it) corresponds to the location of your Anaconda folder; if it doesn’t, move the Anaconda folder there, and check again in the python startup header.
  • If you don’t want to install Anaconda, you’ll need gcc, pip, numpy, and scipy, and may find iPython Notebook useful as a modeling environment.

  • If which gcc does not return anything, install the Apple Command Line Tools.

  • Optional: to install gpkit into an isolated python environment you can create a new conda virtual environment with conda create -n gpkit anaconda and activate it with source activate gpkit.

2. Install either the MOSEK or CVXOPT GP solvers

3. Install GPkit

  • Run pip install gpkit at the command line.
  • Run pip install ipywidgets for interactive control of models (optional)
  • Run python -c "import gpkit.tests; gpkit.tests.run()"
  • If you want units support, install pint with pip install pint.

Linux

1. Install either the MOSEK or CVXOPT GP solvers

2. Install GPkit

  • _Optional:_ to install gpkit into an isolated python environment, install virtualenv, run virtualenv $DESTINATION_DIR then activate it with source $DESTINATION_DIR/bin/activate.
  • Run pip install gpkit at the command line.
  • Run pip install ipywidgets for interactive control of models (optional)
  • Run python -c "import gpkit.tests; gpkit.tests.run()"
  • If you want units support, install pint with pip install pint.
  • You may find iPython Notebook to be useful modeling environment.

Windows

1. Install Python dependencies

  • Install the Python 2.7 version of Python (x,y).
    • Python (x,y) recommends removing any previous installations of Python before installation.
    • Make sure to check the cvxopt checkbox under “Choose components” during installation.

2. (optional) Install the MOSEK GP solver

  • CVXOPT is included with Python (x,y) and does not need to be installed
    • Installing CVXOPT with Anaconda or another Python distribution can be difficult, which is why we reccomend Python (x,y).
  • Download MOSEK, then:
    • Follow these steps for Windows.
    • Request an academic license file and put it in ~/mosek/
    • To use the MOSEK C bindings solver: - Make sure “gcc” is on your system path (that is, you can type gcc into a command prompt and not get “executable not found”) - Run pip install ctypesgen --pre in the Command Prompt (gpkit uses ctypesgen to interface with the MOSEK C bindings)

3. Install GPkit

  • Run pip install gpkit at an Anaconda Command Prompt.

  • Run pip install ipywidgets for interactive control of models (optional)

  • Run python -c "import gpkit.tests; gpkit.tests.run()"
    • If attempting to run the tests results in ValueError: Unknown solver ''. and python -c "import gpkit" prints “Could not find settings file”, then run python -c "import gpkit.build; gpkit.build.build_gpkit()", to look for and install solvers. After doing so (it should say which solvers have been found), run python -c "import gpkit.tests; gpkit.tests.run()" again.
  • If you want units support, install pint with pip install pint.

Updating GPkit between releases

Active developers may wish to install the latest GPkit <http://github.com/hoburg/gpkit> directly from the source code on Github. To do so,

  • Run pip uninstall gpkit to uninstall your existing GPkit.
  • Run git clone https://github.com/hoburg/gpkit.git to clone the GPkit repository, or cd gpkit; git pull origin master; cd .. to update your existing repository.
  • Run pip install -e gpkit to reinstall GPkit.
  • Run python -c "import gpkit.tests; gpkit.tests.run()" to test your installation.