Usage

After the appropriate environment module is loaded - type "python" at the command line to open an interactive session.
To run a python script type python scriptname.py. If the correct "shebang" line is used at the top of the script E.g.

#!/usr/bin/env python

then the script can be run directly as scriptname.py if it's in the executable path or as ./scriptname.py if it's in the current directory. The same rules apply to using a python script in a batch job script.

You can request installation of additional modules by submitting a request ticket in the Support System. The support request tickets can be used for requesting software installation, finding a solution to a particular problem, or just asking a question.

Matplotlib Backend¶

If you are trying to use matplotlib and get an error similar to either of the following:

ImportError: No module named _tkinter

This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized.

then you should try the following before importing pyplot from matplotlib:

import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('Agg')

Output Buffering¶

your job starts, but doesn't appear to produce output from 'print' statements in the job log for a long time, but you want to see that output immediately then turn off output buffering. You can either add a flush=True argument to the print calls you are interested in or run the script with srun --unbuffered python SCRIPT.py

Available modules¶

To see all installed modules names load the environment module and run pip list or python -c "help('modules')" command before submitting a request for a new module installation.
To install their own packages, users can load any module that has python within and run pip install "package".
Users can define an install path by running: pip install --install-option="--prefix=/some/path/" package_name.