Install Instructions for Contributors

Please see below for the recommended install instructions for new contributors:

  1. Before installing, it is recommended that you create an empty virtual environment. For more information about installing packages using virtual environments please see here.

  2. To ensure that you are working with the latest version of the code, you should install Fitbenchmarking from source. For details on how to do this, please see Installing from source.

    Note

    The editable flag should be used when installing from source, like pip install -e ..., so that changes made to the cloned code are immediately reflected in the imported package.

  3. So that you are able to run all tests locally, all extra dependencies and external software should be installed. Please see Extra dependencies and Installing External Software for instructions on how to do this.

    Note

    Please note that if you are using WSL, Matlab is likely to be difficult to install so it is recommended that you use an alternative operating system if you are working on Matlab related issues.

    Additionally, the tests run through Github do not currently include Matlab fitting software, so please ensure tests are run locally before submitting code.

  4. You should check that the versions of packages such as pylint are up to date with those used listed in requirements.txt. This can be done by running the command pip install -r requirements.txt from within the fitbenchmarking directory.