Installation on macOS

This guide covers the following topics:

  1. Installing Dependencies

  2. Downloading the Repository

  3. Setting up the Build Environment

Note

This guide relies heavily on command-line tools. It assumes you are the least familiar with the macOS Terminal application.

Installing Dependencies

Install those packages or make sure you have them in your system.

When using Homebrew, run the following commands in the terminal:

python3 -m ensurepip
brew install git git-lfs
git lfs install

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.

  • 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 pip command:

    pip install -r requirements.txt
    

Note

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

pip install -r requirements.txt --upgrade