Installation

kabaret will run with most python versions (2.7+, 3.3+).

You will need pip to install kabaret. Recent versions of python have it pre-installed, you can test its availability by importing it:

import pip

If nothing happens, you’re good to go. But if an ImportError is raised, you will need to install pip. Download the file get-pip.py then run the following:

python get-pip.py

That’s it, pip is now installed. If you want to know more about pip you can read its documentation

As any other package, kabaret can be installed in your python’s site-package and then used after a simple “import kabaret”.

This is convenient if you have administrator privileges on your python installation, and if you plan on using kabaret as a standard python package.

Chances are that you will need more than that though:

• Installing kabaret at work for personal use may raise access privileges issues.
• Using kabaret embedded in Blender, Maya or any other extended python interpreter raises even more questions. (Do they even support pip ?)
• Keeping installation up to date on every station is not a fun task.

The Shared installation is often the choice to go unless you’re just testing.

Local

The local installation is the most straightforward and can be used to discover Kabaret.

python -m pip install -U kabaret

If you don’t have a Qt wrapper installed, you can install PySide2 (or any other one available for your python version):

python -m pip install PySide2

You can now follow the first tutorial.

Shared

A shared installation puts kabaret and all its dependencies in a folder of your choice (most probably one shared across all workstations).

mkdir ./KABARET_INSTALL
pip install --install-option="--prefix=./KABARET_INSTALL" -U kabaret

Depending on your setup, you may want to install a Qt wrapper there too:

pip install --install-option="--prefix=./KABARET_INSTALL" PySide2

In order to use this installation, you will need to either configure your PYTHONPATH environment variable:

set PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/path/to/KABARET_INSTALL

Or manage your sys.path before importing kabaret in python

import sys
sys.path.append(path_to_kabaret_install)

If you use kabaret with several python interpreters (Nuke, Maya, Houdini…), you should create a separate shared installation for each one to avoid issues regarding compiled bytecode.

Dev

Clone the repo, follow instructions in cmds/README.txt (might be outdated).

Don’t forget to join us on the discord, that’s where the help is !

Dependencies

Automatic

When installing kabaret with pip, those packages will automatically be installed as dependecies:

• redis
• qtpy
• six

Manual

You will need a pre-installed Qt Wrapper: PyQt4, PyQt5, PySide or PySide2. If you don’t know which one you to use, you can go with PySide2:

python -m pip install PySide2

Warning

There is a bug in PySide2=5.15.1 which crashes python when sorting QTreeWidget items. Use PySide2=5.15.0 or PyQt5 instead.

Extra

Kabaret uses various functionalities of redis. You can download one from this page (windows users can download here) and start a server with the default configuration, it will be far enough for testing.

You can run redis in Docker, see https://hub.docker.com/_/redis (be sure to start the image with persistent storage ;) ).

You can also get a free online redis instance at redislab.com.

When deploying kabaret into production, we recommand getting acquainted with redis management, most notably with the persistence options. The bare minimum is probably to ensure your server dumps to a file that you backup every now and then.