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Zim - A Desktop Wiki

Install

Note: This page documents how to run and install zim from source. See downloads for pre-packaged versions.

Another Note: To test zim it is not needed to install zim at all. You should be able to run it directly from the source directory by calling `./zim.py`.

Installing from source

Dependencies

First you should verify you have the dependencies zim needs. You will at least need the following:

  • gtk+ >= 2.6
  • python >= 2.5
  • python-gtk
  • python-gobject
  • python-simplejson (for python < 2.6)
  • python-xdg (optional, but recommended)
  • xdg-utils (optional, but recommended)

Once the dependencies are fulfilled you can run zim directly from the source directory by calling `./zim.py` or continue to install.

Ubuntu

On Ubuntu or other debian derived systems, the following packages should be installed:

  • python
  • libgtk2.0-0
  • xdg-utils
  • python-gtk2
  • python-xdg

Note: see downloads for a per-packaged Ubuntu package

Windows

To install gtk, python and python-gtk on Windows see the instructions at http://www.pygtk.org . If you use python 2.5 you will also need to install the python simplejson module. This can be obtained from http://pypi.python.org. The python-xdg module is not usefull on Windows, so you can skip it.

Note: see downloads for a per-packaged Windows installer

Mac OS X

You can run zim on mac if you have the proper dependencies installed.
If you are using Mac Ports than installing the following ports should work:

  • python26
  • py26-gtk
  • py26-simplejson
  • py26-xdg

(The python25 packages should work as well if you prefer them)

Testing

To verify zim is working properly on your system you can call the test suite using `./test.py`. Failures do not have to be critical, but in theory all tests should pass.

Installing

Zim can be installed from source using:

./setup.py install

Most plugins have additional requirements. These are listed in the plugin
descriptions.

Install Paths

If you install in a non-default location you may need to set the PYTHONPATH environment variable in order for zim to find it's python modules. For example, if you installed the modules below "/home/user/lib/zim" you need to set:

PYTHONPATH=/home/user/lib

Also zim uses the XDG paths to locate data and config files. If you get an error that zim can not find it's data files For example, if you installed the zim data files to "/home/user/share/zim"
you need to set the data path like this:

XDG_DATA_DIRS=/home/user/share:/usr/local/share:/usr/share

This website was written in Zim !