How to install python modules without root access?
I'm taking some university classes and have been given an 'instructional account', which is a school account I can ssh into to do work. I want to run my computationally intensive Numpy, matplotlib, scipy code on that machine, but I cannot install these modules because I am not a system administrator.
How can I do the installation?
Answer
In most situations the best solution is to rely on the so-called "user site" location (see the PEP for details) by running:
pip install --user package_name
Below is a more "manual" way from my original answer, you do not need to read it if the above solution works for you.
With easy_install you can do:
easy_install --prefix=$HOME/local package_name
which will install into
$HOME/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages
(the 'local' folder is a typical name many people use, but of course you may specify any folder you have permissions to write into).
You will need to manually create
$HOME/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages
and add it to your PYTHONPATH environment variable (otherwise easy_install will complain -- btw run the command above once to find the correct value for X.Y).
If you are not using easy_install, look for a prefix option, most install scripts let you specify one.
With pip you can use:
pip install --install-option="--prefix=$HOME/local" package_name