Warning

This section is outdated and needs updating for Python 3.

Installation on Windows (7/Server 2008 R2 and newer)

First time install

Target OS: Windows 7 and newer or Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer

Tested on Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012

To install on an older version of Windows, see installation_win_old.html

Step 1 – Install Python

Install Python 3. Latest version is recommended. If you need another version, they can run side by side.

  • Download Python 3 from http://www.python.org/download/
  • Choose and click on the version
  • Click on “Windows X86-64 Installer” for x64 or “Windows x86 MSI installer” for Win32.
  • Disable UAC or run the installer with admin privileges. If you chose to disable UAC, do not forget to reboot afterwards.

While writing this guide, the latest version was v3.8.1. Remember the specific major and minor versions installed, because they will be needed in the next step. In this case, it is “3.8”.

Step 2 – Python BIN

Add Python BIN folder to the path. This can be done manually (editing “PATH” environment variable) or by using Windows Support Tools that come pre-installed in Windows Vista/7 and later.

Open a CMD and type:

SETX PATH "%PATH%;[your-python-path]" /M

Please substitute [your-python-path] with your Python installation path. Typically this is C:\\Python38.

Step 3 – Install pywin32 extensions

Download pywin32 from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files/

Step 5 – Kallithea folder structure

Create a Kallithea folder structure.

This is only an example to install Kallithea. Of course, you can change it. However, this guide will follow the proposed structure, so please later adapt the paths if you change them. Folders without spaces are recommended.

Create the following folder structure:

C:\Kallithea
C:\Kallithea\Bin
C:\Kallithea\Env
C:\Kallithea\Repos

Step 6 – Install virtualenv

Note

A python virtual environment will allow for isolation between the Python packages of your system and those used for Kallithea. It is strongly recommended to use it to ensure that Kallithea does not change a dependency that other software uses or vice versa.

To create a virtual environment, run:

python3 -m venv C:\Kallithea\Env

Step 7 – Install Kallithea

In order to install Kallithea, you need to be able to run “pip install kallithea”. It will use pip to install the Kallithea Python package and its dependencies. Some Python packages use managed code and need to be compiled. This can be done on Linux without any special steps. On Windows, you will need to install Microsoft Visual C++ compiler for Python 3.8.

Download and install “Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler for Python 3.8” from http://aka.ms/vcpython27

Note

You can also install the dependencies using already compiled Windows binaries packages. A good source of compiled Python packages is http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/. However, not all of the necessary packages for Kallithea are on this site and some are hard to find, so we will stick with using the compiler.

In a command prompt type (adapting paths if necessary):

cd C:\Kallithea\Env\Scripts
activate
pip install --upgrade pip "setuptools<67"

The prompt will change into “(Env) C:\Kallithea\Env\Scripts” or similar (depending of your folder structure). Then type:

pip install kallithea

Note

This will take some time. Please wait patiently until it is fully complete. Some warnings will appear. Don’t worry, they are normal.

Step 8 – Install Git (optional)

Mercurial being a python package, was installed automatically when doing pip install kallithea.

You need to install Git manually if you want Kallithea to be able to host Git repositories. See http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git#Installing-on-Windows for instructions. The location of the Git binaries (like c:\path\to\git\bin) must be added to the PATH environment variable so git.exe and other tools like gzip.exe are available.

Step 9 – Configuring Kallithea

Steps taken from setup.html

You have to use the same command prompt as in Step 7, so if you closed it, reopen it following the same commands (including the “activate” one). When ready, type:

cd C:\Kallithea\Bin
kallithea-cli config-create my.ini

Then you must edit my.ini to fit your needs (IP address, IP port, mail settings, database, etc.). NotePad++ or a similar text editor is recommended to properly handle the newline character differences between Unix and Windows.

For the sake of simplicity, run it with the default settings. After your edits (if any) in the previous command prompt, type:

kallithea-cli db-create -c my.ini

Warning

This time a new database will be installed. You must follow a different process to later upgrade to a newer Kallithea version.

The script will ask you for confirmation about creating a new database, answer yes (y)

The script will ask you for the repository path, answer C:\Kallithea\Repos (or similar).

The script will ask you for the admin username and password, answer “admin” + “123456” (or whatever you want)

The script will ask you for admin mail, answer “admin@xxxx.com” (or whatever you want).

If you make a mistake and the script doesn’t end, don’t worry: start it again.

If you decided not to install Git, you will get errors about it that you can ignore.

Step 10 – Running Kallithea

In the previous command prompt, being in the C:\Kallithea\Bin folder, type:

gearbox serve -c my.ini

Open your web server, and go to http://127.0.0.1:5000

It works!! :-)

Remark: If it does not work the first time, Ctrl-C the CMD process and start it again. Don’t forget the “http://” in Internet Explorer.

What this guide does not cover: