💼 Meerschaum Portable¶
Sometimes, it's not worth the hassle setting up a complete Python environment. If you're using a non-administrative account or just want to test out Meerschaum, Meerschaum Portable might be right for you.
Meerschaum Portable is a self-contained Meerschaum installation, running entirely within one directory. Download and extract the archive, and you can have Meerschaum running in seconds.
Compatability Notice
Although Meerschaum Portable has been well tested, you may still encounter problems, such as permissions issues on Mac OS. In case you cannot successfully extract Meerschaum Portable, consider following the directions for a normal install found on the Getting Started page.
Installation¶
Installing Meerschaum Portable is pretty straightforward: download and extract the archive file, then execute mrsm. Follow the steps below for more information.
Download the Archive¶
Download the appropriate archive for your operating system. For convenience, I recommend installing the Full version, though note that the extracted folder can grow to >1 GB in size!
If you don't need all of Meerschaum's functionality and would rather save a bit of disk space, download the Minimal version. You can always install dependencies later with mrsm upgrade packages.
| Windows 10 x64 | Linux x64 | MacOS |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Full | Linux Full | MacOS Full |
| Windows Minimal | Linux Minimal | MacOS Minimal |
Extract the Archive¶
After downloading the archive, move it to your desired location and extract its contents:
Right click the zip file and choose Extract All. Once it's finished extracting, open the folder and double click setup.bat. Allow permissions if prompted.
Extract the tar archive:
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Double-click the archive to open the Archive Utility, or use tar (see Linux instructions).
Run the Script¶
Inside the extracted folder, there is an executable called mrsm (mrsm.bat on Windows). Run this script by double-clicking (Windows and MacOS) or via a terminal window. The first time launching may take a bit, so be patient!
Upgrading¶
Oftentimes, Meerschaum Portable is a few versions behind the latest official release. To upgrade to the latest release, run the upgrade meerschaum command from within mrsm:
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Resetting¶
To return Meerschaum Portable to its "factory" state, delete the folder called root inside the extracted directory. The root folder contains Meerschaum data and configuration files, so make sure you back up your data before deleting!
Uninstallation¶
On Windows, run the included uninstall.bat script to uninstall Meerschaum. On Linux and MacOS, simply delete the extracted directory:
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Keep Meerschaum Portable in its own folder.
On Windows, the script uninstall.bat deletes the parent folder of mrsm.bat. Therefore do not keep the contents of the .zip folder by themselves on your desktop, or uninstall.bat will delete your Desktop folder!