1. Installing XRootD Python Bindings¶

For general instructions on how to use pip to install Python packages, please take a look at https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/tutorials/installing-packages/. The installation of XRootD and its Python bindings follows for the most part the same procedure. However, there are some important things that are specific to XRootD, which we discuss here. Since XRootD 5.6, it is possible to use pip to install only the Python bindings, building it against a pre-installed version of XRootD. In this case, we recommend using the same version of XRootD for both parts, even if the newer Python bindings should be usable with older versions of XRootD 5.x. Suppose that XRootD is installed already into /usr. Then, one can build and install the Python bindings as shown below:

xrootd $ cd bindings/python
python $ python3 -m pip install --target install/ .
Processing xrootd/bindings/python
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Installing backend dependencies ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done
Building wheels for collected packages: xrootd
  Building wheel for xrootd (pyproject.toml) ... done
  Created wheel for xrootd: filename=xrootd-5.6-cp311-cp311-linux_x86_64.whl size=203460 sha256=8bbd9168...
  Stored in directory: /tmp/pip-ephem-wheel-cache-rc_kb_nx/wheels/af/1b/42/bb953908...
Successfully built xrootd
Installing collected packages: xrootd

The command above installs the Python bindings into the install/ directory in the current working directory. The structure is as shown below:

install/
|-- XRootD
|   |-- __init__.py
|   |-- __pycache__
|   |   |-- __init__.cpython-311.pyc
|   |-- client
|       |-- __init__.py
|       |-- __pycache__
|       |   |-- __init__.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- _version.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- copyprocess.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- env.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- file.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- filesystem.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- finalize.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- flags.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- glob_funcs.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- responses.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- url.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- utils.cpython-311.pyc
|       |-- _version.py
|       |-- copyprocess.py
|       |-- env.py
|       |-- file.py
|       |-- filesystem.py
|       |-- finalize.py
|       |-- flags.py
|       |-- glob_funcs.py
|       |-- responses.py
|       |-- url.py
|       |-- utils.py
|-- pyxrootd
|   |-- __init__.py
|   |-- __pycache__
|   |   |-- __init__.cpython-311.pyc
|   |-- client.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
|-- xrootd-5.6.dist-info
    |-- INSTALLER
    |-- METADATA
    |-- RECORD
    |-- REQUESTED
    |-- WHEEL
    |-- direct_url.json
    |-- top_level.txt

8 directories, 36 files

If you would like to install it for your own user, then use pip install --user instead of --target.

If XRootD is not already installed into the system, then you will want to install both the client libraries and the Python bindings together using pip. This is possible by using the setup.py at the top level of the project, rather than the one in the bindings/python subdirectory:

xrootd $ python3 -m pip install --target install/ .
Processing xrootd
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Installing backend dependencies ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done
Building wheels for collected packages: xrootd
  Building wheel for xrootd (pyproject.toml) ... done
  Created wheel for xrootd: filename=xrootd-5.6-cp311-cp311-linux_x86_64.whl size=65315683 sha256=a2e7ff52...
  Stored in directory: /tmp/pip-ephem-wheel-cache-9g6ovy4q/wheels/47/93/fc/a23666d3...
Successfully built xrootd
Installing collected packages: xrootd
Successfully installed xrootd-5.6

In this case, the structure is a bit different than before:

xrootd $ tree install/
install/
|-- XRootD
|   |-- __init__.py
|   |-- __pycache__
|   |   |-- __init__.cpython-311.pyc
|   |-- client
|       |-- __init__.py
|       |-- __pycache__
|       |   |-- __init__.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- _version.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- copyprocess.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- env.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- file.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- filesystem.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- finalize.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- flags.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- glob_funcs.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- responses.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- url.cpython-311.pyc
|       |   |-- utils.cpython-311.pyc
|       |-- _version.py
|       |-- copyprocess.py
|       |-- env.py
|       |-- file.py
|       |-- filesystem.py
|       |-- finalize.py
|       |-- flags.py
|       |-- glob_funcs.py
|       |-- responses.py
|       |-- url.py
|       |-- utils.py
|-- pyxrootd
|   |-- __init__.py
|   |-- __pycache__
|   |   |-- __init__.cpython-311.pyc
|   |-- client.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
|   |-- libXrdAppUtils.so
|   |-- libXrdAppUtils.so.2
|   |-- libXrdAppUtils.so.2.0.0
|   |-- libXrdCl.so
|   |-- libXrdCl.so.3
|   |-- libXrdCl.so.3.0.0
|   |-- libXrdClHttp-5.so
|   |-- libXrdClProxyPlugin-5.so
|   |-- libXrdClRecorder-5.so
|   |-- libXrdCrypto.so
|   |-- libXrdCrypto.so.2
|   |-- libXrdCrypto.so.2.0.0
|   |-- libXrdCryptoLite.so
|   |-- libXrdCryptoLite.so.2
|   |-- libXrdCryptoLite.so.2.0.0
|   |-- libXrdCryptossl-5.so
|   |-- libXrdPosix.so
|   |-- libXrdPosix.so.3
|   |-- libXrdPosix.so.3.0.0
|   |-- libXrdPosixPreload.so
|   |-- libXrdPosixPreload.so.2
|   |-- libXrdPosixPreload.so.2.0.0
|   |-- libXrdSec-5.so
|   |-- libXrdSecProt-5.so
|   |-- libXrdSecgsi-5.so
|   |-- libXrdSecgsiAUTHZVO-5.so
|   |-- libXrdSecgsiGMAPDN-5.so
|   |-- libXrdSeckrb5-5.so
|   |-- libXrdSecpwd-5.so
|   |-- libXrdSecsss-5.so
|   |-- libXrdSecunix-5.so
|   |-- libXrdSecztn-5.so
|   |-- libXrdUtils.so
|   |-- libXrdUtils.so.3
|   |-- libXrdUtils.so.3.0.0
|   |-- libXrdXml.so
|   |-- libXrdXml.so.3
|   |-- libXrdXml.so.3.0.0
|-- xrootd-5.6.dist-info
    |-- COPYING
    |-- COPYING.BSD
    |-- COPYING.LGPL
    |-- INSTALLER
    |-- LICENSE
    |-- METADATA
    |-- RECORD
    |-- REQUESTED
    |-- WHEEL
    |-- direct_url.json
    |-- top_level.txt

8 directories, 78 files

As can be seen above, now all client libraries have been installed alongside the C++ Python bindings library (client.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so). When installing via pip by simply calling pip install xrootd, the package that gets installed is in this mode which includes the libraries. However, command line tools are not included.

Binary wheels are supported as well. They can be built using the wheel subcommand instead of install:

xrootd $ python3.12 -m pip wheel .
Processing xrootd
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Installing backend dependencies ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done
Building wheels for collected packages: xrootd
  Building wheel for xrootd (pyproject.toml) ... done
  Created wheel for xrootd: filename=xrootd-5.6-cp312-cp312-linux_x86_64.whl size=65318541 sha256=6c4ed389...
  Stored in directory: /tmp/pip-ephem-wheel-cache-etujwyx1/wheels/cf/67/3c/514b21dd...
Successfully built xrootd

If you want to have everything installed, that is, server, client, command line tools, etc, then it is recommended to use CMake to build the project, and use the options -DENABLE_PYTHON=ON -DINSTALL_PYTHON_BINDINGS=ON so that CMake takes care of calling pip to install the Python bindings compiled together with the other components in the end. The option -DPIP_OPTIONS can be used to pass on options to pip, but it should never be used to change the installation prefix, as that is handled by CMake. Please see INSTALL.md for instructions on how to build XRootD from source using CMake.

1. Installing XRootD Python Bindings¶

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