Installing FireWorks

Note

We suggest that you use Python 2.7.3 or higher, especially in production (although Python 3+ is not tested). There is a bug in Python 2.7.2 that could affect FireWorks (although we haven’t seen any problems yet).

Install MongoDB

MongoDB powers the database backend of FireWorks. You need to install MongoDB on one machine to host the FireWorks database (the same machine can also be used to run jobs). Additional machines (i.e., that are used to run FireWorks jobs) do not require a MongoDB installation. FireWorks does not need to be installed on the same machine as your MongoDB installation.

To install MongoDB, follow the instructions at MongoDB.

Preparing to Install FireWorks (Python and pip)

To prepare for installation, you should:

  1. Install python 2.7 (preferably Python 2.7.3 or higher), if not already packaged with your system. To check your python version, use the command python --version.
  2. Install pip, if not already packaged with your system. This will allow you to download required dependencies.

Tip

if you have easy_install configured, e.g. through setuptools, you should be able to install pip using the command easy_install pip. You should make sure that setuptools is installed using the proper Python version and probably without the --user option if running ez_setup.py.

Virtualenv installation option

Virtualenv is a tool that allows you to separate your FireWorks installation from your other Python installations. For example, you might want to use Python 2.7 for FireWorks, but Python 3+ for other Python codes you’re interested in using. Or, you might have different versions of Python libraries supporting FireWorks and your other installations. This is often the case on shared machines. if you’re interested in this option, you might consider a virtualenv install. Otherwise, just follow the installation instructions below.

Installation Method 1: Use Pip

The easiest way to install FireWorks is to simply run a one-liner in pip. The downside of this method is that it is more difficult to view and edit the source code.

  1. To install, simply type:

    pip install FireWorks
    pip install django  # (only needed if you want to use the built-in web frontend!)
    pip install paramiko  # (only needed if using built-in remote file transfer!)
    pip install fabric  # (only needed if using daemon mode of qlaunch!)
    pip install requests  # (only needed if you want to use the NEWT queue adapter!)

    Note

    You may need administrator access, e.g. sudo pip install FireWorks.

  2. Separately, you can download the FireWork tutorial files if you plan on going through the tutorials. You can download these from the FireWorks Github page. All you need is the fw_tutorial directory, but it might be easiest to download the entire source and just copy the fw_tutorial directory somewhere else.

Installation Method 2: Use Git to install in developer mode

The most comprehensive way to install FireWorks is in ‘developer mode’, which will allow you to easily view and modify the source code and fork the repo for development purposes. However, this method requires setting up an account on GitHub and properly setting up SSH keys.

  1. Install git, if not already packaged with your system. This will allow you to download the latest source code.

  2. Run the following code to download the FireWorks source:

    git clone git@github.com:materialsproject/fireworks.git

    Note

    Make sure you have an account on GitHub set up, and have associated your SSH key on your computer with your GitHub account. Otherwise you might get a cryptic Permission denied (publickey) error. Help on ssh keys can be found here.

  3. Navigate inside the FireWorks directory containing the file setup.py:

    cd fireworks
  4. Run the following command (you might need administrator privileges, so pre-pend the word ‘sudo’ as needed):

    python setup.py develop
  5. Install optional dependencies using pip with the following commands (with administrator privileges):

    pip install django  # (only needed if you want to use the built-in web frontend!)
    pip install paramiko  # (only needed if using built-in remote file transfer!)
    pip install fabric  # (only needed if using daemon mode of qlaunch!)
    pip install requests  # (only needed if you want to use the NEWT queue adapter!)

Tip

If you have an old version of these libraries installed, you might need to run pip install --upgrade <PACKAGE>. In particular, ensure that Django is greater than v1.5.

Run unit tests

  1. Staying in the directory containing setup.py, run the following command:

    python setup.py test
  2. Ideally, a printout should indicate that all tests have passed. If not, you might try to debug based on the error indicated, or you can let us know the problem so we can improve the docs (see Contributing / Contact / Bug Reports).

Updating an existing FireWorks installation

If you want to update an existing FireWorks installation and used the simple pip install (Method 1), just run:

pip install --upgrade FireWorks

If you installed FireWorks in developer mode:

  1. Navigate inside your FireWorks source directory containing the file setup.py (you can type lpad version to tell you where this is).

  2. Run the following commands:

    git pull
    
    python setup.py develop
    
    python setup.py test