What’s the correct process to install and run a .py application and its dependencies? Where should I save the .py file, where should I run it from, and can it interfere with the rest of my system?

Often there is an application/script I’d like to use and it is provided as a .py file download, along with a list of other applications/scripts that need to be installed separately for it to work. Often not all of these dependencies are available in my distro’s repository. There seems to be an assumption of prior knowledge as to how to get set up to run .py files, and it is therefore not documented on developers pages. Can anyone fill me in?

I’d like to install this application. Perhaps it could be used as an example to help explain the process.

My distro is Debian 13, in case that’s relevant.

Thanks!

  • just_another_person
    2·
    5 hours ago

    You don’t need to “Install” them like in Windows. Everything in Linux is just a call to launch something, and for Python is just python someprogram.py.

    If you’re regularly going to be calling this program, you can put it anywhere makes sense for you, but generally somewhere in your PATH, and then you can make an alias for your preferred terminal to launch it easily.

    If that’s super confusing, give this a try (cross platform): https://github.com/InkAurora/PythonAliasManager