Installation

Babel is distributed as a standard Python package fully set up with all the dependencies it needs. On Python versions where the standard library zoneinfo module is not available, pytz needs to be installed for timezone support. If pytz is installed, it is preferred over the standard library zoneinfo module where possible.

virtualenv

Virtualenv is probably what you want to use during development, and if you have shell access to your production machines, you’ll probably want to use it there, too. Use pip to install it:

$ sudo pip install virtualenv

If you’re on Windows, run it in a command-prompt window with administrator privileges, and leave out sudo.

Once you have virtualenv installed, just fire up a shell and create your own environment. I usually create a project folder and a venv folder within:

$ mkdir myproject
$ cd myproject
$ virtualenv venv
New python executable in venv/bin/python
Installing distribute............done.

Now, whenever you want to work on a project, you only have to activate the corresponding environment. On OS X and Linux, do the following:

$ . venv/bin/activate

If you are a Windows user, the following command is for you:

$ venv\scripts\activate

Either way, you should now be using your virtualenv (notice how the prompt of your shell has changed to show the active environment).

Now you can just enter the following command to get Babel installed in your virtualenv:

$ pip install Babel

A few seconds later and you are good to go.

System-Wide Installation

This is possible as well, though I do not recommend it. Just run pip with root privileges:

$ sudo pip install Babel

(On Windows systems, run it in a command-prompt window with administrator privileges, and leave out sudo.)

Living on the Edge

If you want to work with the latest version of Babel, you will need to use a git checkout.

Get the git checkout in a new virtualenv and run in development mode:

$ git clone https://github.com/python-babel/babel
Initialized empty Git repository in ~/dev/babel/.git/
$ cd babel
$ virtualenv venv
New python executable in venv/bin/python
Installing distribute............done.
$ . venv/bin/activate
$ python setup.py import_cldr
$ pip install --editable .
...
Finished processing dependencies for Babel

Make sure to not forget about the import_cldr step because otherwise you will be missing the locale data. The custom setup command will download the most appropriate CLDR release from the official website and convert it for Babel.

This will pull also in the dependencies and activate the git head as the current version inside the virtualenv. Then all you have to do is run git pull origin to update to the latest version. If the CLDR data changes you will have to re-run python setup.py import_cldr.