Installation

TL;DR

Make sure Git, Python 3 and pip for Python 3 are installed on your system. Then install flashbake with:

pip3 install flashbake

If you have problems running flashbake under cron after installation check out “Troubleshooting Cron” section on the Running page.

Linux (including WSL on Windows 10 and Crostini on Chromebooks)

Install Git

Git is often included on Linux systems by default, but if it’s not installed use either:

sudo apt-get install git

or

sudo yum install git

PyPI

After Git is installed, get Flashbake via the Python Package Index (PyPi) as this is the easiest way to install the program.

First install pip3 with either:

sudo apt install python3-pip

or

sudo yum install python3-pip

Then install Flashbake with:

pip3 install flashbake

If Python 3 is not installed on your system then run either:

sudo apt install python3

or

sudo yum install python3

Then install pip3 and flashbake as described above.

macOS

Git and Python 3

If you’d like to install Flashbake similarly to Linux users you’ll first need to install Git and Python 3 if you don’t already have them. You can do this by installing Homebrew, a package manager that behaves similarly to tools like Apt and Yum on Linux. To install Homebrew follow the instructions on the project’s homepage.

Once Homebrew is ready installing Git is as simple as brew install git.

Installing Python 3 is a little more involved. First install with

brew install python3

Next you have to install pip, which is like a package manager for Python itself. Do this with

brew postinstall python3

Then link the newly installed version of Python 3 with the python3 command. Let’s say you just installed Python 3.9, then the commands would be

brew link [email protected]

PyPI

Now you can just run pip as Linux users do with:

pip3 install flashbake

macOS

Another alternative for Mac users is MacPorts (currently available only for the Python 2 version of Flashbake). Download the binary installer appropriate for the version of Mac OS X you are running and following their installation instructions. Usually that consists of saving a .dmg file, opening it, and opening up the .pkg file which kicks of the standard installer tool.

As of 5/9/2009, flashbake is available as a package within MacPorts maintained by ram.

sudo port install flashbake

Installing via MacPorts also takes care of all of the dependencies, you only need to install the flashbake port itself; that’s it!

If the install breaks consistent with errors like the following:

> your-mac:~ you$ sudo port install flashbake
> --->  Computing dependencies for flashbake
> --->  Building py26-enum
> Error: Target org.macports.build returned: shell command " cd
> "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.m
> ac ports.org_release_ports_python_py26-enum/work/enum-0.4.4" &&
> /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/bin/python2.
> 6 setup.py --no-user-cfg build " returned error 1 Command output:
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>  File "setup.py", line 17, in <module>
>    from setuptools import setup, find_packages
> ImportError: No module named setuptools
>
> Error: The following dependencies failed to build: py26-enum
> py26-feedparser py26-setuptools
> Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.

then try manually updating the setuptools module.

your-mac:~ you$ sudo port install py26-setuptools
--->  Computing dependencies for py26-setuptools
--->  Fetching py26-setuptools
--->  Attempting to fetch setuptools-0.6c9.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/python
--->  Verifying checksum(s) for py26-setuptools
--->  Extracting py26-setuptools
--->  Configuring py26-setuptools
--->  Building py26-setuptools
--->  Staging py26-setuptools into destroot
--->  Installing py26-setuptools @0.6c9_0
--->  Activating py26-setuptools @0.6c9_0
--->  Cleaning py26-setuptools

At this point, try to install flashbake again, it should complete.

Manual install on Linux

If you want to install manually on Linux, Flashbake requires the setuptools module so that the normal installation will automatically take care of the modules on which Flashbake relies. The setuptools module itself still needs to be installed, as below, manually before installing flashbake itself.

Depending on your system the command is either:

sudo apt-get install python3-setuptools

or

sudo yum install python3-setuptools

If you are using a legacy version of flashbake compatible with Python 2 then you need to install a different version of setuptools:

sudo apt install python-setuptools

or

sudo yum install python-setuptools

Next, download the tarball from the Releases page, explode it, and run

sudo python3 setup.py install

or for Python 2-compatible versions of flashbake:

sudo python setup.py install

in that exploded directory.

You can also download the sources, either from the Head or one of the tags, and run the above line in the source project. You can run flashbake from the source directory as “./bin/flashbake” but you must satisfy the external dependencies, first.

Next

Configuration – How to configure a project directory