Installation on Linux#

This guide covers the following topics:

  1. Installing Dependencies

  2. Downloading the Repository

  3. Setting up the Build Environment

Installing Dependencies#

Below are listed the installation commands for popular Linux distributions.

For the appropriate system, run the command in a terminal:

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install python3 python3-pip git git-lfs
git lfs install --skip-repo

Redhat/Fedora:

sudo yum install python python-pip git git-lfs
git lfs install --skip-repo

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S python python-pip git git-lfs
git lfs install --skip-repo

Downloading the Repository#

Simply check out the Blender Manual’s repository using:

cd ~
git clone https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender-manual.git

The repository will now be downloaded which may take a few minutes depending on your internet connection.

Setting up the Build Environment#

Tip

It is recommended to setup and activate a virtual Python environment where dependencies will be installed:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

Repeat the source .venv/bin/activate command to re-activate the virtual environment, whenever you open a new terminal to build the documentation.

This step may be required on some distributions that enforce PEP 668.

  • Open a Terminal window.

  • Enter the blender-manual folder which was just added by git clone:

    cd ~/blender-manual
    
  • Inside that folder is a file called requirements.txt which contains a list of all the dependencies we need. To install these dependencies, we can use the pip3 command:

    pip3 install -r requirements.txt
    

Note

Every now and then you may want to make sure your dependencies are up to date using:

pip3 install -r requirements.txt --upgrade