Installation

Note

ibek normally runs inside a generic IOC container image, where it is already installed and where it has access to the EPICS support modules it needs. The direct pip install below is mainly for trying out the command line interface or for local development of ibek itself. For the bigger picture see the overview and the epics-containers ecosystem.

Check your version of python

You will need python 3.13 or later. You can check your version of python by typing into a terminal:

$ python3 --version

Create a virtual environment

It is recommended that you install into a “virtual environment” so this installation will not interfere with any existing Python software:

$ python3 -m venv /path/to/venv
$ source /path/to/venv/bin/activate

Installing the library

You can now use pip to install the library and its dependencies:

$ python3 -m pip install ibek

If you require a feature that is not currently released you can also install from github:

$ python3 -m pip install git+https://github.com/epics-containers/ibek.git

The library should now be installed and the commandline interface on your path. You can check the version that has been installed by typing:

$ ibek --version

For an end-to-end walkthrough of building an IOC, see Build an IOC.