Question

Maybe it’s because I’m new to shared environments where I have no root access or the dpkg/apt family of tools, but I wanted to install from source (for instance, gcc/gdb), possibly by using wget to grab the tarball, unpack it, and point configure --prefix=$HOME, before calling make; make install, but I’m having some issues. Namely, the whitelist (obvious), and secondly the configure step is giving me trouble.

Can someone walk me through this process? Pythonanywhere comes with make, so it’s not as if they don’t want you doing this.

EDIT

Perhaps gcc/gdb may not be the best example — together they are close to half the 500MB allotment for free accounts.

Answer 1

Any pure python modules will install with ease. Unfortunately you can’t install modules that require a compiler. The Python Anywhere staff is generally very accommodating to get packages requested installed to the battery’s included for all to enjoy.

Feel free to make a request to the PA forum

or

Email the staff: [e-mail]

For clarity. To install a pure python module you just use

pip-3.2 install --user <package_name>

Change 3.2 as needed for the Python version you want and of course change <package_name> to your desired package.