Linux Mint 17.3 "Rosa" is December 2015 release of the polished and
widely-used Linux distribution. This Mint release includes both Python 2.7
and 3.4 by default, but in this tutorial we will download and install the
latest Python 3.5.1 version to run our Django application.
If you want to use a different Linux distribution such as
Ubuntu instead of Mint, check out
the tutorial for Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial Xerus". If Mint is your desired
development environment though, let's
get started!
Tools We Need
Our setup will use several system packages and code libraries to get
up and running. Do not worry about installing these dependencies just yet,
we will get to them as we progress through the tutorial. The tools and
their current versions as of June 2016 are:
Linux Mint 17.3 "Rosa" with the
default Cinnamon desktop
Python version
3.5.1
Django web framework version
1.9.7
Green Unicorn (Gunicorn) version
19.6
If you are on Mac OS X or Windows, my recommendation is to use
virtualization software such as
Parallels or
VirtualBox with the
Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop .iso.
We should see a desktop screen like this one when we boot up the operating
system for the first time.
Open up terminal to proceed with the configuration.
System Packages
We can see the Python version Linux Mint comes with, as well as where its
executable is stored.
The output of those two commands should be (these are not commands to run):
We really want to use the latest Python release instead of the default 3.4
when starting a new Python project, so let's download and install 3.5.1 now.
Run these commands in the terminal to download Python 3.5.1 source code:
Extract the Python source code:
Linux Mint is not configured by default to build the Python source code. We
need to update our system package lists and install several packages to
make building the Python source code possible. If you have a password on
your user account, enter it when prompted to allow the installation to
proceed.
Once the packages are installed, we can configure and install Python from
source.
Test that the installation worked properly by starting up the Python REPL:
If the REPL starts up properly with Python 3.5.1 in the output then we're
good to go.
The basic system packages we need are now installed so we can proceed to
our Python-specific dependencies.
Virtual environment and pip
Python 3.5 comes with the virtual environment and pip applications so we
can use them to handle our
application dependencies.
Create a directory to store virtual environments then create a virtualenv
for our Django project.
Activate the virtualenv.
Our virtual environment is properly activated when we see (djangoproj)
prepended to our prompt.
Our virtualenv with Python 3.5.1 is activated so we can install whatever
dependencies we want, such as Django and Gunicorn. Our default python
command is also set to use the Python 3.5.1 installation instead of the
Python 2.7 version that comes with Linux Mint.
Django and Gunicorn
Now we can install Django and Green Unicorn into our virtual environment.
If there are no errors in the pip output then that is a good sign we can
proceed.
Create a new Django project named djangoproj, or whatever you want to name
your project. Change into the directory for the new project.
We can run Django using the development server with the
python manage.py runserver command. However, start Django up with
Gunicorn instead.
Awesome, we can bring up our shell project in the web browser at
the http://localhost:8000 or
http://127.0.0.1:8000 address.
Now you're ready for Django development!
Ready for Development
Those are the first few steps for beginning development with
Django and Gunicorn on
Linux Mint 17.3 "Rosa". If you need an even more in-depth walkthrough for
deploying your Python web application to a production environment, check
out the
Full Stack Python Guide to Deployments book.
To figure out what to do next for your Python project, read the topics
found on the table of contents page.
Questions? Contact me via Twitter
@fullstackpython
or @mattmakai. I'm also on GitHub with
the username makaimc.
See something wrong in this post? Fork
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and submit a pull request.