Setup for Linux

Updated on 21 May 2024
2 Minutes to read

Print
Share
Dark
Light
PDF

Article summary

Did you find this summary helpful?

Thank you for your feedback

Git setup

Depending on the operating system, Git may already be installed.

To determine if it is installed, run: git --version

If the response is a git version, then it is already installed.
If it is not installed, follow the steps below to install it.

Run the following command: sudo apt install git-all

For more detailed instructions on installing Git, refer to the Git documentation.

Python and Node

This setup also helps you achieve deterministic builds and an overall more consistent work environment. You won’t have to manually manage the Python virtualenv locations and names anymore. For Node, global packages are installed based on the version.

The setup makes use of pyenv and nvm, which are version managers for Python and Node respectively. You can think of these tools as scripts that dynamically modify your path environment variable as you switch versions, ensuring that version locations and directories are cleanly separated and that the right version is called when you run python or node in a given directory.

Note: This process refers to python and python3. Before attempting these steps, determine which of these your environment uses and then follow the corresponding instructions.

Python

Complete the following steps to set up your environment for Python.

Install pyenv: curl https://pyenv.run | bash

Add pyenv to your PATH.

echo 'export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"' >> ~/.zshrc 
echo 'command -v pyenv >/dev/null || export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc 
echo 'eval "$(pyenv init -)"' >> ~/.zshrc

echo 'export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"' >> ~/.bashrc 
echo 'command -v pyenv >/dev/null || export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc 
echo 'eval "$(pyenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc

Restart your shell for changes to take effect.
exec "$SHELL"

Set up your build environment for Python:

For Ubuntu or Debian

sudo apt update;
sudo apt install build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev \\
  libbz2-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev curl \\
  libncursesw5-dev xz-utils tk-dev libxml2-dev \\
  libxmlsec1-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev

For other Linux distros, refer to the instructions in the Suggested build environment documentation in the pyenv GitHub.

Install a python version and set it as the global default:
pyenv install <version>
pyenv rehash
pyenv global <version>
replacing <version> with the latest version.
Install Python tools.
1. Upgrade your pip version: pip install --upgrade pip
2. Install pipenv: pip install --user pipenv

Node

Complete the following steps to set up your environment for Node and nvm.

Install nvm:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.5/install.sh | bash
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.5/install.sh | bash
Restart your shell for changes to take effect.
exec "$SHELL"
Install a node version and set it as the global default.
nvm install 18.16.0
nvm alias default 18.16.0
Add deeper shell integration using the instructions in GitHub's nvm Deeper Shell Integration documentation. With this functionality, when you change directories the node version switches automatically to match the new directory.
Enable Node Corepack so you can use the latest version of Yarn.
corepack enable

Yarn setup

Depending on the operating system, Yarn may already be installed.

To determine if it is installed, run: yarn --version

If the response is a version, then it is already installed.
If it is missing, ensure you have installed Node.
- If Node is installed, and Yarn is not, install it by running: npm install --global yarn

For more detailed instructions on installing Yarn, refer to the Yarn documentation.

Was this article helpful?

What's Next

Setup for macOS

Table of contents

Git setup
Python and Node
Yarn setup