Firedrake installation instructions.md

Firedrake download page

The firedrake download page outlines the installation instructions: [https://www.firedrakeproject.org/download.html]

Basic steps

1. Download the installation script:

   curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/firedrakeproject/firedrake/master/scripts/firedrake-install

2. If anaconda/miniconda/etc. is installed, you will need to comment out any code from ~/.bashrc/~/.zshrc/etc. between the # >>> conda initialize >>> and # <<< conda initialize <<<. This can (probably) be uncommented after installation.

3. Run the installation script:

   python3 firedrake-install

   The installation script can be customized. Take a look at the help if you would like to customize the installation:

   python3 firedrake-install --help

   The installation script will create a directory firedrake containing a virtual environment within the directory it is in.

4. When I had to reinstall firedrake, I had trouble with the installation script (the creation of the virtual environment was not successful due to a problem with the venv creation call). This required modifying the script to skip the creation of the virtual environment (line 1719) and creating the virtual environment separately using

   python3.11 -m venv firedrake

   The installation script needs to also be modified to not quit when encountering the exisitng virtual environment (Line 1705). Hopefully you will not have this problem at all (my first installation had no issues). The modified installation script section (starting at line 1702) is as follows:

   if mode == "install":
       if os.path.exists(firedrake_env):
              log.warning("Specified venv '%s' already exists", firedrake_env)
              # quit("Can't install into existing venv '%s'" % firedrake_env) # We now allow for continuing if the venv already exists.
              os.environ["VIRTUAL_ENV"] = firedrake_env
       else:
           log.info("Creating firedrake venv in '%s'." % firedrake_env)
           # Debian's Python3 is screwed, they don't ship ensurepip as part
           # of the base python package, so the default python -m venv
           # doesn't work.  Moreover, they have spiked the file such that it
           # calls sys.exit, which will kill any attempts to create a venv
           # with pip.
           try:
               import ensurepip        # noqa: F401
               with_pip = True
           except ImportError:
               with_pip = False
           import venv
           venv.EnvBuilder().create(firedrake_env) # Problematic line for my installation
           if not with_pip:
               import urllib.request
               log.debug("ensurepip unavailable, bootstrapping pip using get-pip.py")
               urllib.request.urlretrieve("https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py", filename="get-pip.py")
               check_call([python, "get-pip.py"])
               log.debug("bootstrapping pip succeeded")
               log.debug("Removing get-pip.py")
               os.remove("get-pip.py")
   
           # We haven't activated the venv so we need to manually set the environment.
           os.environ["VIRTUAL_ENV"] = firedrake_env

5. Activate the virtual environment by using

   source firedrake/bin/activate

   or

   . firedrake/bin/activate