Setting up a Python development environment

This tutorial shows how to prepare your local machine for Python development, including developing Python apps that run on Google Cloud.

If you already have a development environment set up, see Python and Google Cloud to get an overview of how to run Python apps on Google Cloud.

Objectives

  • Install a supported version of Python compatible with Google Cloud.
  • Use venv to isolate dependencies.
  • Install an editor (optional).
  • Install the Google Cloud CLI (optional).
  • Install the Cloud Client Libraries for Python (optional).
  • Install other useful tools.
  • Set up authentication (optional).

Installing Python

Python's installation instructions vary by operating system. Follow the guide for the operating system you're running in your development environment, macOS, Windows, or Linux.

macOS

macOS includes a version of Python by default and uses it for its own purposes. To avoid interfering with macOS, we recommend creating a separate development environment and installing a supported version of Python for Google Cloud. To install Python, use homebrew.

  1. To use homebrew to install Python packages, you need a compiler, which you can get by installing Xcode's command-line tools.

    xcode-select --install

  2. Install homebrew by following the instructions on the homebrew homepage, and then use homebrew to install Python as follows:

    brew install pyenv
pyenv install PYTHON_VERSION

    Python version number should be in the format of x.y. For example:

    pyenv install 3.12

  3. After the installations are complete, verify that Python 3 is available as python and python3, and that pip is also installed.

    To verify that Python is available, run the following command:

    python3 --version

    The output shows the version. You can learn about Python homebrew on the Homebrew Python Formulae page, and then check your version.

    To verify that pip3 is available, run the following command:

    pip3 --version

    If installed, the output shows the pip3 version. For more about the latest version of pip3, see the pip Release Notes.

    If the preceding command does not show the pip3 version, make sure that pip3 is installed correctly. If pip3 is installed but not working, upgrade to the latest version using the following command:

    python -m pip install --upgrade pip

    Homebrew installs the latest versions of Python available on your platform. The version numbers in the outputs might be different from the latest official releases of Python.

Windows

  1. To install Python in a Windows environment, download the installer for the version of Python you need from the Python website. For more information, see the supported versions of Python for Google Cloud.

  2. To access your version of Python, use Python launcher for Windows.

    To start the version of Python you installed, run the following command:

    py

    To start the version of Python 3 you installed, run the following command:

    py -3

    To verify the version of pip that is available, run the following command:

    py -m pip --version

    The output shows the version from C:\users\[USERNAME]\appdata\local\programs\python\python38-32\lib\site-packages.

    You can learn about the latest version of pip in the pip Release Notes.

Linux

Most Linux distributions include recent versions of Python.

  1. To install Python in a Linux environment, install the appropriate packages for your distribution. For Debian and Ubuntu, these packages are python3, python3-dev, python3-venv, and python3-pip,

    Install these packages using the following commands:

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3 python3-dev python3-venv python3-pip

  2. After the installations are complete, verify that you have pip installed:

    pip3 --version

    You can learn about the latest version of pip in the pip Release Notes.

Using venv to isolate dependencies

venv is a tool that creates isolated Python environments. These isolated environments can have separate versions of Python packages, which lets you isolate one project's dependencies from the dependencies of other projects. We recommend that you always use a per-project virtual environment when developing locally with Python.

  1. Use the venv command to create a virtual copy of the entire Python installation. This tutorial creates a virtual copy in a folder named env, but you can specify any name for the folder.

    macOS

    cd your-project
python -m venv env

    Windows

    cd your-project
py -m venv env

    Linux

    cd your-project
python3 -m venv env

  2. Set your shell to use the venv paths for Python by activating the virtual environment:

    macOS

    source env/bin/activate

    Windows

    .\env\Scripts\activate

    Linux

    source env/bin/activate

  3. Now you can install packages without affecting other projects or your global Python installation:

    pip install google-cloud-storage

    If you want to stop using the virtual environment and go back to your global Python, you can deactivate it:

    deactivate

You can read more about venv in the venv docs.

Installing an editor

To develop Python apps, you need an editor. Here are a few of the more popular editors (in no particular order):

Installing the Cloud Client Libraries for Python

The Cloud Client Libraries for Python is how Python developers integrate with Google Cloud services like Datastore and Cloud Storage. To install the package for an individual API like Cloud Storage, use a command similar to the following:

pip install --upgrade google-cloud-storage

Installing the gcloud CLI

The gcloud CLI is a set of command-line tools for Google Cloud. It contains gcloud and bq, which you can use to access Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, BigQuery, and other products and services from the command line. You can run these tools interactively or in your automated scripts.

Set up authentication

To use the client library, you must first set up authentication.

If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account: 

gcloud auth application-default login

You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

For more information, see Authenticate for using client libraries.

What's next