blobxfer Installation

There are multiple available options for installing blobxfer. If you only require the CLI functionality, then you can install via one of three methods:

If you require the blobxfer data movement library, then you will need to install the Python package from PyPI.

Python Package from PyPI

blobxfer is a pure Python package, however, some dependencies require a C compiler and supporting libraries if there is no binary wheel for that dependency and your platform. Please follow the pre-requisites section first prior to invoking installation via pip.

It is strongly recommended to use a 64-bit Python interpreter.

Pre-requisites

blobxfer has dependencies which require a C compiler if your platform does not have pre-made binary wheels for these dependencies. Please follow the instructions below for your platform. You will need to run the following commands via sudo or as root.

Ubuntu

# for Python3 (recommended)
apt-get update
apt-get install -y build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python3-dev python3-pip

# for Python2
apt-get update
apt-get install -y build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python-dev python-pip

CentOS/RHEL

# for Python3 (recommended)
yum install -y epel-release
yum install -y python34 python34-devel gcc openssl-devel libffi-devel
curl -fSsL https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3

# for Python2
yum install -y gcc openssl-devel libffi-devel python-devel
curl -fSsL https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python

SLES/OpenSUSE

# for Python3 (recommended)
zypper ref
zypper -n in gcc libopenssl-devel libffi48-devel python3-devel
curl -fSsL https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3

# for Python2
zypper ref
zypper -n in gcc libopenssl-devel libffi48-devel python-devel
curl -fSsL https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python

Mac OS X

Python 2.7 should come pre-installed. However, if you want to install blobxfer for Python 3.5+ (recommended), please follow the steps outlined on this guide to ensure that you have the latest version of Python, a compiler and pip.

Windows

Please install at least Python 3.5 or later to avoid requiring a compiler. If you must use Python 2.7, you can download the necessary development headers and compiler from Microsoft. It is strongly recommended to use a 64-bit interpreter.

Windows Subsystem for Linux

Please follow the same instructions for the Linux distribution installed.

Installation via pip

After the pre-requisite steps have been completed then install the blobxfer Python package:

# for Python3
pip3 install blobxfer

# for Python2
pip install blobxfer

blobxfer is compatible with Python 2.7 and 3.4+. To install for Python 3 (which is recommended), some distributions may use pip3 instead of pip. Installing into a virtual environment or your user area via --user is recommended to avoid installation issues and conflicts with system-wide Python packages.

Pre-built Binary

Download an appropriate Release binary for your operating system. Pre-built binaries are not available for all platforms and architectures at this time.

Note that for the Linux pre-built binary, it may not work on all distributions. If this is the case, please pick an alternate installation method. After downloading the binary, make sure that the executable bit is set via chmod +x prior to attempting to execute the file.

Docker Image

blobxfer is available on Docker Hub and can be retrieved with:

# Linux
docker pull alfpark/blobxfer

# Windows
docker pull alfpark/blobxfer:latest-windows

Please note that when invoking the Docker image, you will need to ensure proper mapping of host to container mount points.