[ESS] Installing ESS on CentOS?

[spencerg]

Hi, James, et al.:


       I do have root access, but I'm afraid to use it for this:  If I 
make a mistake, it might require reinstalling the operating system to 
fix it.


       I've downloaded and unpacked Python 2.7 as Mike suggested.  
README said I should do "./configure" and "make", which I did.  README 
said, "This creates an executable "./python", to install in /usr/local.  
first do 'su root' and then 'make install'."  I'm reluctant to do that 
it might get used in place of python 2.4.3.  I've renamed the executable 
"python2.7", in case that helps.  Then I tried:


             # yum localinstall python2.7

             You need to be root to perform this command.


       Should I try this?  If it uses the given name, then it should 
produce the desired parallel install.  However, if it uses a name inside 
the file, then it could replace Python 2.4.3 with 2.7, possibly 
requiring reinstalling the operating system to fix the resulting problems.


       Thanks again,
       Spencer


On 10/27/2010 1:17 PM, James W. MacDonald wrote:
> Hi Spencer,
>
> If you don't have root access (either by being on the sudoers list or 
> having the root password), I am not sure you will be able to install 
> in either /usr/local nor /opt, which IIRC, are owned by root.
>
> The canonical way to install updated packages when you don't have root 
> access (this holds true esp for things like R that you want to update 
> regularly) is to do what Michael proposes below, but you can then do 
> one of two things.
>
> Either use ./configure --prefix=/yourhomedir/bin, then make and make 
> install, which will put the binaries in a bin directory in your home 
> directory that you can point to in your .bashrc file. Or you can 
> simply do ./configure, then make and forgo the make install. Then the 
> binaries will reside in e.g., ~/R-2.12.0/bin or ~/python_2.7/bin, and 
> you can point to each one with an
>
> export PATH=/your/paths:$PATH
>
> in your .bashrc file.
>
> Best,
>
> Jim
>
>
>
> On 10/27/2010 3:13 PM, Michael Hannon wrote:
>>> Hi, Mike, et al.:
>>>
>>>        How can I make a parallel install of Python 2.7?
>>>
>>>        I've seen that suggestion before, but I don't know how to do 
>>> that.
>>>        Moreover, if I accidentally replace 2.4.3, it could create more
>>>        problems.
>>>        I'm not sure I need Python 2.7.  I need to download files 
>>> from an FTP
>>>        site and store them in a MySQL database.  A script that 
>>> downloads
>>>        files from an FTP site works using Python 2.6.5 under 
>>> Vista_x64 but
>>>        not under Python 2.4.3 under CentOS.  However, I was not able to
>>>        access MySQL with Python under Vista.
>>>
>>>        Thanks for the detailed comparison of CentOS, Fedora, RHEL, etc.
>>>
>>>
>>>        Thanks,
>>>        Spencer
>>
>> Hi, Spencer.  I haven't done a parallel installation of Python in 
>> quite a
>> while now, so I can't give you a real recipe.  I think you'd download 
>> the
>> source "tarball" from:
>>
>>      http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7/Python-2.7.tgz
>>
>> Then unpack (tar -xzvf Python-2.7.tgz) and check the "readme" or 
>> equivalent
>> files for further instructions.  The package will PROBABLY install in 
>> either:
>>
>>      /usr/local
>>
>> or
>>
>>     /opt
>>
>> by default.  Both of these directories are "orthogonal" to the 
>> directories
>> used by Redhat, Fedora, etc.
>>
>> Assuming you have Python 2.7 installed in /usr/local, for instance, you
>> basically just invoke that version instead of the system version.  
>> You can do
>> this in a number of ways:
>>
>>      (1) Invoke it with the full path name:
>>
>>              /usr/local/bin/python
>>
>>          (modify the location as appropriate for your system)
>>
>>      (2) Rename the new version and invoke Python via the new name:
>>
>>              cd /usr/local/bin
>>              mv python python2.7
>>              python2.7
>>
>>      (3) Change your PATH variable such that the operating system 
>> looks in
>>          /usr/local before it looks in /usr.  The details of this vary,
>>          depending on the shell you're using.  By default you're 
>> using bash,
>>          so you could modify the file:
>>
>>              .bash_profile
>>
>>          in your login directory to include something like:
>>
>>              PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
>>              export PATH
>>
>>           After doing that, any unqualified reference to "python" 
>> will invoke
>>           /usr/local/bin/python
>>
>> -- Mike
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> ESS-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/ess-help
>


-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Operating Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph:  408-655-4567