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 dnf 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