<previous | top | next> Pyro Manual

3. Installation and Configuration

Please read this entire chapter before trying to install Pyro.  Not that it's complex, but just that you've seen the choices you have to make.

Installation

Extract the Pyro archive. It has five subdirectories:

Pyro/
This is the actual Pyro package. Move this directory somewhere in your Python search path. On most systems, the lib/site-python directory is a nice place. On Windows, move it in the Python folder itself.
Alternatively, keep it where it is and manually add the Pyro root directory to your Python search path (e.g. in the environment variable PYTHONPATH).
bin/
This directory contains the command-line utilities. Move the contents of this directory somewhere in your shell search path.
Alternatively, keep it where it is and manually add it to your shell search path.
docs/   and   examples/
Put those wherever you like. In docs you can find the Pyro manual, and in examples there are some Pyro examples.
extra/
Contains some extra files. For instance, 'SocketServer.py' is in here. This is the Python 1.5.2 version of the SocketServer module. Pyro requires this version so if you don't already use Python 1.5.2, make sure this newer (and bugfixed) SocketServer.py is used, for instance, by copying it over the old version in the Python library directory.

Configuration

The default settings will do nicely in most cases. But sooner or later you will have to change some parameters of Pyro. Pyro's configuration is accessed through Pyro.config. This object has several configuration items:
Configuration itemTypeDescriptionDefault value
PYRO_CONFIG_FILE string The Pyro configuration file that is used. See below. Special, see below
PYRO_STORAGE string Location where Pyro stores data like log files. Current directory
PYRO_LOGFILE string Name of the logfile. If it's not an absolute path, it's relative to $PYRO_STORAGE. Pyro_log
PYRO_USER_LOGFILE string Name of the user logfile. If it's not an absolute path, it's relative to $PYRO_STORAGE. Pyro_userlog
PYRO_TRACELEVEL number The tracing level of Pyro, 0-3. 0=nothing, 1=only errors, 2=warnings too, 3=full: errors, warnings and notes. 0
PYRO_USER_TRACELEVEL number The user tracing level, 0-3. 0=nothing, 1=only errors, 2=warnings too, 3=full: errors, warnings and notes. 0
PYRO_BINARY_PICKLE boolean Wether the default marshaling is done in binary format (faster and less memory usage) or in human-readable ASCII. 1
PYRO_COMPRESSION boolean Wether the protocol should compress the data to save bandwidth (at the cost of CPU time). The zlib module is used for compression. If you don't have zlib, Pyro still works, but without compression. 0
PYRO_MAXCONNECTIONS number The maximum number of simultaneous connections to one Pyro server. Note that a custom connection validator may or may not take this in account. The default validator does check for this limit. 200
PYRO_MULTITHREADED boolean Wether Pyro servers should be multithreaded or not. 1 (if supported)
PYRO_MOBILE_CODE boolean Wether Pyro should automatically download Python code from clients if it isn't available on the server. 0
PYRO_DNS_URI boolean Wether symbolic DNS host names should be used in URIs instead of fixed IP addresses. 0
PYRO_BC_RETRIES number How often a broadcast will be retried if no answer has been received. Currently only used by the Name Server locator. 2
PYRO_BC_TIMEOUT number How long Pyro will wait (in seconds) for an answer to a broadcast request. Currently only used by the Name Server locator. 2
PYRO_PORT number The base socket number of the range of socket numbers that the Pyro daemon can use to listen for incoming requests (Pyro method calls). 7766
PYRO_PORT_RANGE number The size of the socket port range. Pyro will try connections in the range PYRO_PORT to PYRO_PORT+PYRO_PORT_RANGE. 100
PYRO_NS_NAME string The readable object name of the Pyro Naming Server objects. Note: this option cannot be changed by an environment variable. :Pyro.NameServer
PYRO_NS_GROUPSEP char The character that is used to separate groups in names. Note: can't be changed after init. And please make sure it is different from PYRO_NS_ROOTCHAR. Strange things happen if the Naming Service uses another character than your code does. .
PYRO_NS_ROOTCHAR char The character at the beginning of names to make them absolute from the root namespace. Note: can't be changed after init. And please make sure it is different from PYRO_NS_GROUPSEP. Strange things happen if the Naming Service uses another character than your code does. :
PYRO_NS_DEFAULTGROUP string The default group name in which names are located. This must be an absolute name (starting with the root character). :Default
PYRO_NS_URIFILE string The file where the Naming Server will write its URI. If it's not an absolute path, it's relative to $PYRO_STORAGE. Pyro_NS_URI
PYRO_NS_BC_PORT number The socket number on which the Naming Server will listen for broadcast requests (usually to find the location). 9091
PYRO_NS_PORT number The socket number on which the Naming Server will listen for incoming requests (Pyro method calls, in fact). 9090

There are several ways to change the default settings:

  1. Change the settings in your code, at runtime. You can change all settings before starting Pyro, and most settings can be changed dynamically during execution too.
    ... Pyro.config.PYRO_PORT = 7000
    ... Pyro.config.PYRO_TRACELEVEL = 3
  2. Define environment variables that override the default settings.
    Every configuration item, except PYRO_NS_NAME, has an equivalent environment variable. If you define this, you can override the default setting for that item. For instance, it might be convenient to have your Pyro programs generate log files and put them in a designated log directory:
    ...$ export PYRO_LOGFILE=/var/log/PYRO/logfile
    ...$ export PYRO_TRACELEVEL=3
    (This is for bash - syntax is different for other shells or Windows. Also note that PYRO_NS_NAME cannot be configured this way.)
  3. Configuration files (since version 1.1).
    You can use a configuration file that can contain some small configuration changes or a fully new configuration for all items. Pyro checks if the environment variable PYRO_CONFIG_FILE is set. If it isn't set, or set to an empty string, Pyro checks for a Pyro.conf file in the current directory. If it exists, Pyro uses it as a configuration file. If it doesn't exist, Pyro uses the default built-in configuration.
    If the environment variable is set, Pyro uses the value as the name for the configuration file. If the configuration file can't be read, a PyroError exception occurs.

    The format of the configuration file is very simple. It is a text file, and each line can be empty, a comment, or a configuration item setting. A comment starts with '#'. A config item setting is of the format 'ITEM=VALUE'. If Pyro finds an unknown config item, a KeyError exception occurs.

    Note that you can change PYRO_NS_NAME in a configuration file! Note that PYRO_CONFIG_FILE is useless inside a configuration file. After initialization, it is set to the absolute path of the configuration file that was used (or the empty string, if no configuration file was used). Note that setting PYRO_CONFIG_FILE from within your code is useless too because Pyro is already initialized at that point.

Environment variables override configuration file settings. Configuration file settings override the built-in default settings.