Installing from source on GNU/Linux

For production use of Plom we recommend using Docker. These instructions below are mainly for developers, packagers, etc. If you only want to grade some papers, then you don’t need any of this; instead go to plomgrading.org and follow instructions for getting started with a Plom Client.

Fedora

Tested on Fedora 40. Some stuff from the package manager:

  # sudo dnf install \
        ImageMagick gcc gcc-c++ cmake \
        python3-passlib python3-qt5 \
        python3-jsmin python3-defusedxml python3-yaml \
        python3-more-itertools python3-chardet \
        python3-seaborn python3-cairosvg \
        python3-platformdirs python3-arrow \
        python3-pillow python3-pandas \
        python3-PyMuPDF python3-scikit-learn \
        python3-stdiomask python3-requests-toolbelt \
        python3-pip python3-wheel python3-setuptools \
        python3-tomlkit python3-tqdm python3-urllib3 \
        python3-pytest python3-PyMySQL \
        python3-django python3-django-filter \
        python3-aiohttp python3-peewee python3-cryptography \
        python3-zxing-cpp \
        python3-gunicorn python3-whitenoise \
        python3-weasyprint python3-pyqt6 \
        latexmk tex-dvipng texlive-scheme-basic \
        tex-preview tex-charter tex-exam tex-preprint \
        python3-myst-parser python3-sphinx python3-sphinx_rtd_theme \
        python3-sphinx-argparse

At this point pip install plom (or pip install . from inside the Plom source tree) should pull in the remaining dependencies.

If you’re building a production server you may want to ignore some of the above and instead use pinned versions:

  # pip install --user -r requirements.txt

You may also want to consider a tool like virtualenv.

Ubuntu

Plom requires Python 3.8. It will not work on Ubuntu 18.04. It is time to upgrade your OS.

Some stuff from the package manager:

  # sudo apt install \
        cmake make imagemagick dvipng g++ \
        python3-passlib python3-pandas python3-pytest \
        python3-pyqt6 python3-pyqt6.qtsvg pyqt6-dev-tools \
        python3-dev python3-pip python3-setuptools python3-wheel \
        python3-requests-toolbelt texlive-latex-extra \
        latexmk texlive-fonts-recommended python3-pillow \
        python3-tqdm libpango-1.0-0 libpangocairo-1.0-0 \
        python3-defusedxml python3-jsmin python3-cairosvg \
        libxcb-cursor0

The pango stuff is needed for weasyprint to produce pdf reports.

libxcb-cursor0 is needed to prevent the Plom client from crashing when loading plugins for PyQt6.

Now upgrade pip (your local copy, not the system one)

  # pip3 install --upgrade --user pip
  # python3 -m pip install --upgrade --user setuptools
  # python3 -m pip --version
  # pip3 --version
  # pip --version

Note python3 -m pip is some kind of workaround for old OSes. On Ubuntu 20.04, you should be able to just use “pip”, but inspect output to be sure. Similarly, on new enough systems, you don’t need to pip install a new setuptools.

At this point pip install --user . from inside the Plom source tree should pull in the remaining dependencies.

If you’re building a production server you may want to ignore some of the above and instead use pinned versions:

  # python3 -m pip install --user -r requirements.txt

You may also want to consider a tool like virtualenv.

Another thing to watch out for (at least on Ubuntu 18.04) is that pip install --user ... commands will install binaries in ${HOME}/.local/bin but this is not in your $PATH by default. You may need to update your path in a file such as .bashrc.