Download and install DUNE modules from PyPI

We have added installation support of Dune modules via pip using the Python package index (PyPI). The module and the modules it depends on are downloaded, build, and installed either into the system or into a python virtual environment (the latter might be of more interest as it is an option to install Dune without root privileges). This could also be of interest for C++ users of Dune as Python bindings are not mandatory. Scripts like dunecontrol and duneproject can be used the same way as with a system installation so that installed and source modules can easily be used together.

Starting with the 2.8 release, we are planning to upload stable release versions as well as regular developer snapshots of all core modules. That should make it easy for users to work with an installed Dune which can be updated to a developer version if a newer feature is required.

Installing the main core modules (common, geometry, and grid) can be easily installed into a virtual environment without requiring root prviliges by running

python3 -m venv ~/dune-env
source ~/dune-env/bin/activate
pip install dune-grid

You should now be able to test with one of your own Dune modules or you can run a Python test:

python -m dune.grid
cd grid_tutorial
python example.py

Simply remove ~/dune-env to get rid of everything.

All core modules are available on the Python Package Index (pypi), as well as some additional grid managers (e.g. pip install dune-alugrid), and the discretization module dune-fem.

We have tested on a number of Linux distributions and on MacOS. On Windows follow the WSL installation and instead of installing the binary packages use pip as described above.

Please report if you encounter any problems with the setup.

Known issue

If some software component was found through the environment variable CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH then there might be problems later when loading some shared libraries requiring to add those paths also the LD_LIBRARY_PATH.