Installation
============

General  installation guidelines are described below.

Virtual Environment
-------------------

A virtual environment is highly recommended to isolate your project's dependencies and prevent conflicts with other Python projects you may have. This ensures a clean and consistent environment for NekUpload.

Creating a Virtual Environment
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before installing the package, create a python environment with your desired Python version. Python versions from 3.11 onwards are required. 

For Linux and macOS:

.. code-block:: sh

    python3 -m venv myenv
    source myenv/bin/activate

For Windows cmd:

.. code-block:: batch

    python3 -m venv myenv
    myenv\Scripts\activate.bat
    
For Windows PowerShell:

.. code-block:: powershell
    
    python3 -m venv myenv
    myenv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

Note that on some systems, the Python executable is invoked using ``py`` or ``python``.

Installing the Package
----------------------

NekUpload can be found on PyPI and can be installed with: 

.. code::

    python3 -m pip install NekUpload

Note that this requires Python version >=3.11 and tkinter>=8.5. The tkinter requirement should be satisfied automatically as it usually comes bundled with Python. 

Next Steps
----------

There are currently two entry points for executing the upload and validation pipeline. An app with GUI interface is provided for local file uploads. This is designed for small file uploads. For larger datasets it is recommended to utilise shell scripting and submit to a HPC system.

.. warning::
    The CLI currently does not support rigorous validation, so the GUI should be used.